CHENNAI: You’ll rarely meet someone nowadays who is enduringly passionate about his craft.Sometimes, you hear someone’s talking about pursuing his or her passion, while others don’t know how to put them in words. But when Dharma Chandru opens up about photography, you’ll wonder if he’s a maniac or an eccentric genius. And you will be left speechless after looking at some of his works. ‘Awesome’ would be an understatement.Name any genre — wildlife, sports, underwater, panoramic or aerial, the works of this chennaibased photographer is on par with the experts. At 27, he is already into clubbing different genres and experimenting with new ones. “I recently merged aerial and panoramic genres and clicked aerial- panoramic pictures,” shares Chandru. He got into panoramic photography after being gifted a book on it by ace cinematographer, PC Sriram.He started photography as a hobby with his Minolta camera and soon realised that photography is his passion.His philosophy is ‘do the job perfectly and credits will automatically pour in due time’.His pictures have been featured in Tamilnadu Tourism Greetings. He was selected as the official photographer for Royal Challengers Bangalore during IPL 3 and now he is the in-house photographer for Vijay Mallya’s UB Group.Interestingly, he never did a course in photography or apprenticed with any professionals. On the contrary, he is an engineering graduate who has also studied sound engineering.Never one to rest on his laurels, Chandru constantly updates himself on the latest in photography.“I read a lot on the subject. If I can’t get the books here, I ask my friends abroad to buy it for me,” he says.And if you thought photography is all about clicking pictures, he contradicts, “Before I go on a tour, I gather all the necessary data, get officials’ permission in case I’m visiting any prohibited areas and I carry GPS instruments to record the topographical information for future reference.” For the Tamilnadu Tourism project, he says, he travelled over 4,000 km in six days and found many unexplored tourist destinations.“People know only about Kutralam Falls, but I’ve found many unknown waterfalls in Tamil Nadu during my travel,” he reveals. And to show the environment in all its glory, he makes sure that plastic doesn’t find a place within the frame. “I take along my friends or driver who clean up the place before taking a shot,” he explains.He has also travelled to many African and Asian countries where “there were many adventures I encountered with animals,” he says. Chandru credits his father for the success and fame. “He didn’t force me join his business. He let me do what I want and has accompanied me in one of the wildlife photoshoots.” Chandru loves taking candid pictures. During IPL3, he clicked many pictures of Rahul Dravid and other players without their knowledge. “They came out very well. When I uploaded the pictures on the Royal Challengers’ facebook page, it got 50,000 hits within 12 hours,” he says. He does not like too much digital correction in his works. “I do only the basic colour corrections, which is possible in films as well.” So, what’s his next experiment? “I’m trying to test a new kind of photography, which nobody has tried before. I do not want to divulge more details now,” he says carefully.
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