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The Bedi Brothers are synonymous with wildlife photography in India. Their work spanning over three decades has won them many awards, accolades and admirers across the world. Rajesh Bedi, the younger brother, talks to Aabhas Sharma about his photography equipment
First brush with the camera
The first camera I used was an old Canon which my father owned. My father used to take us to Corbett National Park during summer holidays and we used to roam around the jungle with a security guard. The guard didn't have a gun, only a wooden stick - we were never afraid of what we might encounter in the jungle. Wildlife always fascinated me as a child and it was a natural progression to take up photography. There was this curiosity to capture the animals in various moods and their expressions were priceless.
Early days
I remember when there was a clamour for films and we normally used to check our stock before going on an assignment. In Delhi, only Chandni Chowk shops used to stock them and that too in the grey market. If you wanted to borrow from a fellow lensman, he would always claim he too was going on an assignment. I used to carry at least 20 rolls with me. I always used to shoot with slide transparencies. I am pretty disorganised, so finding the right slide at the time of printing used to be a headache. I remember when I had just started out, I needed a tripod for a project with BBC but I couldn't find it anywhere in the whole of Delhi. In fact it wasn't available anywhere in the country. Nowadays, it's so simple to get all sorts of equipment in a matter of hours at your doorstep.
Digital revolution
Technology has made life extremely simple for us photographers. I now carry several memory cards with me and on most assignments click about 50,000 photos. Photoshop is another tool which is brilliant but I don't advocate too much editing on the photos, especially wildlife photos. One downside of technology and advanced equipment is that most people with DSLR cameras and expensive lenses think they are photographers. It has become a game for many and I see many amateur photographers putting up exhibitions. The real passion seems to have dwindled away - but photography is something for which you need a passion. I strongly believe one should have a "guru" in life. For us it was our seniors whose work we used to admire. Today the gurus are YouTube and Google.
Equipment I carry
I often joke that when I travel, my equipment is worth an airline ticket for another person. I have my Canon 5D Mark III and an array of Canon lenses - prime and zoom. So there's a 35mm and 50 mm, a 70-200 mm, and a 300 mm and 600mm lenses. I also use a wide-angle zoom of 28-300 mm. At times, you don't have the opportunity to change lenses and some people miss the shot in the haste to do so. I generally don't use lens shades and prefer to have natural lighting. The bag in which I carry my equipment is waterproof. Then there are tripods which are extremely difficult to lug around but you can't do without them. I generally carry two tripods with me but we use our own elephant tripod when we are doing video shooting. The elephant tripod which my brother and I fabricated in the '90s is now widely used by cameramen all over the world, especially for filming the tiger. It is a tripod which is longer and comes with a slide where you can put your camera on to get better shots. I often customise my lenses as well. For instance, I changed the stand on which my 5.6mm lens fits as it is more easy to manoeuvre the camera and provides a better grip.
