Why you should stop playing it Safe- A photographer's perspective | Vishal Naveen | TEDxGCT

The speaker, a doctor and photographer, shares his philosophy on creativity and failure in photography. He contrasts a "safe shot" of a leopard, which any amateur could replicate, with his experimental approach. He recounts his experience at Champol Hide in Kenya, an underground hide offering long waits for animal sightings. Initially, he captured a predictable shot of giraffes drinking, which, while visually striking, lacked originality. This led him to experiment with a slower shutter speed, aiming to create a "ghostly pattern" of the giraffe. While this produced a unique image, the giraffe's face was blurred, rendering it a "bad image." Despite numerous failed attempts with this technique, he persisted. On his final day, he spotted a lone giraffe against a starry sky. Using long exposure (20 seconds), he managed to capture a unique shot of the giraffe with the stars, though he felt it wouldn't achieve global recognition. Later, he experimented with a 2-second exposure of a female giraffe, which, by chance, was joined by a second giraffe. He felt this image had "soul." His ultimate breakthrough came with a 15-second exposure. One giraffe stood still for 15 seconds, while the second, initially walking, perfectly aligned with the first in the final 5 seconds. This resulted in his best image in 11 years, depicting two giraffes and stars, which he captioned "two souls getting connected in the heart of wild." He emphasizes that this shot was a combination of his effort and nature's serendipity. This image earned him a shortlist in the motion category of the Sony World Photography Awards, making him the first Indian to achieve this. He concludes by urging others to pursue their unique visions, embrace failure as a stepping stone, and not be deterred by setbacks, as the world needs individual voices, not just echoes.