Raptors
Raptors Read the Wind
Falcons, buzzards and eagles as field indicators of prey, perches, season and open habitat health.
Vinay Chittora / Rajasthan field naturalist
Cane & Camera
A naturalist's portfolio of wildlife films, field notes, and biodiversity stories from Mukundara-linked landscapes, Thar grasslands, wetlands and forest edges.
Field practice
Observe first. Film second. Leave the scene intact.
What this is
A working field portfolio, not a stock gallery.
Cane & Camera is built around patient natural history work: reading habitats, understanding behavior, and translating field encounters into photographs, films and conservation communication that still feel close to the ground.
Current field studies
Five ways into the landscape
Grasslands
The Open-Country Ledger
Bustards, coursers, larks, buntings and shrikes tell the story of Rajasthan's threatened grassland systems.
Wetlands
Edges of Water
A patient look at tanks, reedbeds and shallows where waterbirds, nest builders and human pressure meet.
Forest Edge
Canopy, Bark and Shade
The quieter side of the portfolio: groves, calls, insects and the shaded lives around Mukundara-linked edges.
Small Lives
The Overlooked Majority
Reptiles, small birds, insects and behavior-led moments that make biodiversity feel close and consequential.
Field method
The frame begins before the camera comes up.
Habitat reading
Grass height, water level, fruiting trees, perches, tracks and calls decide the story before a subject appears.
Low-disturbance work
No baiting, playback, handling or forced proximity. The image is never worth breaking the scene.
Biodiversity-first context
Flagship species matter, but so do shrubs, insects, reptiles, seed eaters, wetlands and the overlooked edges that keep systems alive.
Selected frames
Portfolio edit
Thar grassland
Great Indian Bustard at Dusk
A rare flight across open country: the frame is about space, silence, and how much a grassland must still hold for this bird to survive.
Open scrub and grassland
Laggar Falcon on Watch
A falcon on a low perch turns the grassland into a map of thermals, rodents, wind and waiting.
Leaf litter and rocky cover
Bengal Monitor in Brush
The frame refuses the postcard version of wildlife. Scales, leaf litter, prey and hunger are the real field grammar.
Monsoon woodland
Jacobin (Pied) Cuckoo — Harbinger of Monsoon
The monsoon has its own field marks, and this bird is one of the loudest.
Village grove and forest edge
Northern Plains Gray Langur Portrait
A face from the shared edge of settlement and wild habitat.
Fruiting canopy
Plum-headed Parakeet in Canopy
Color, fruit and motion: the forest edge as a feeding table.
Films
Field stories in motion
Film
Gods of the Ghats
A short documentary on life in the Sahyadris, following the atmosphere, species, and sacred ecology of the Western Ghats.
Film
Great Indian Bustard: Courtship on the Last Grasslands
A field film on the Great Indian Bustard's courtship display in Rajasthan, and the grassland stewardship needed for the species to survive.
Film
The 10-Gram Traveller
A Red-breasted Flycatcher links continents, winter refuge, Mukundara Hills and the Aravalli belt in one tiny migratory body.
Mukundara context
A landscape is more than a headline animal.
My field work around Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve and Rajasthan's connected habitats looks at movement routes, wetland edges, grassland revival, native plants, reptiles, insects, birds and the daily negotiations between people and wild life.
Collaborations
For films, field scouting, conservation campaigns and natural history documentation.
If the project needs local ecological context, ethical field execution, or a naturalist's eye behind the camera, start with a short brief.