Qatar pix among top picks for world prize

Doha: Doha resident and dedicated bird photographer Dileep Kumar has scored a major achievement – with a photo taken in Qatar recently being chosen as among the top five out of 39,387 entries in BirdGuide’s online “Photo of the Year 2009”.

"The picture of the Greater Spotted Eagle"

Based in Britain, BirdGuide is a leading international birding site, and competition to be among the photographers whose picture is chosen gets more intense every year. Year 2009 saw a record number of entries.
Kumar, whose work was featured in Gulf Times in April and May last year, entered an early morning shot of a Greater Spotted Eagle standing in shallow water at the Abu Nakhla pools.
The photo was featured on the BBC World News website on Friday.
The BirdGuide judge’s comment was: “To capture such shots, experienced bird photographers head to locations with shallow water on still days, especially first thing in the morning when the light is soft and the water is at its calmest.
“This was the approach used by Dileep Kumar when he visited the Abu Nakhla lagoons in Qatar. Most reflection shots feature waders, wildfowl or other aquatic birds, but Dileep was treated to something special when the lagoon received a rare visit by a Greater Spotted Eagle.
“Capturing this stunning raptor and its reflection in a uniform setting in golden light, Dileep has created an aesthetic and memorable image.”
A native of Anthikad of Thrissur District in Kerala, Kumar, wife Sindhu and two young daughters Gitanjali and Nivedita have lived in Qatar for five years.
He works for Qatar Petroleum in its Onshore Engineering Projects but is out every weekend with his camera.
Although he took up photography only three years ago, Kumar’s images already have a wide following among wildlife lovers in Qatar, and his fame is spreading.
Kumar, who only learned about his success on Saturday, says: ‘I wouldn’t be so surprised if an image captured from India or Africa finds its way to this level, but I’m really proud that a wildlife image from the desert land of Qatar, where people don’t expect such things to exist, can find a place at an international level.”
His photo of the eagle, and other winning images, can be seen online at
http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1920 and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8487031.stm.

Source: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=340789...
---------------------------------------------------------

Let us congratulate Dileep Kumar for taking a beautiful portrait of this rare greater spotted eagle which he took in the early morning tranquillity of the Abu Nakhla lagoons, Qatar.

I really enjoyed surfing his personal website (specially 'The Wings of Qatar': http://dileepanthikad.zenfolio.com/