Riaz Cader is a Sri Lankan wildlife photographer who has assisted in the production of major documentaries such as, National Geographic’s Wild Sri Lanka and Disney’s Monkey Kingdom. He recently delivered a showcase of his work to the Natural History Society of Sri Lanka at the Colombo Natural History Museum. In an interview last week, he discussed his professional rise, the stories behind some of his best images, his views of the human-wildlife conflict in Sri Lanka and over development at the Yala National Park.
Excerpts:
Q: Having started off by obtaining a Finance degree, how did you move to wildlife photography?
A: I finished my schooling here in Sri Lanka and then joined a university in Melbourne, Australia. I did the Bachelor of Commerce degree. I then worked as an auditor in an accounting firm for almost two years, but I felt it was not where my heart was. The war had ended by then and I was looking forward to returning home. The recession was also unfavourable around that time in 2009 and hence, the company I worked for let some of the staff go, including myself.
I had been interested in wildlife and nature from a young age and I wanted it to be a part of my life. I could have been doing a bank job or a finance job, but to have the freedom to go to Sinharaja, Wilpattu or Yala was something that I longed for. So I returned home and joined a company called Jetwing Eco Holidays. Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne was my boss there and he contributed to promoting wildlife-based tourism in Sri Lanka.
Q: Were you taking photographs the whole time?
A: Yes, I travel with a group of friends and a travel agent to national parks for work and I often scout locations out for documentary film crews. I travel to certain places to take photographs on weekends as well.
Once that first shoot finished, I left Jetwing and joined andBeyond, a safari company in Africa that is spreading towards South Asia and South America. They had the capacity to handle both Wild Sri Lanka and Monkey Kingdom, so we had a team of three and an accountant working on two of those projects, on top of our normal tours. I’ve worked with another BBCteam recently, through my own company. They are filming elephants for an upcoming documentary which is an offshoot of Planet Earth II. I’m registered with the BBC as a local fixer for Sri Lanka.
It was the first time anybody had done anything like that in Sri Lanka, to such a scale. So there were whole sequences that they researched and planned for: They wanted leopards, sloth bears, elephants, whales along with the monsoons. Most of the time, we were working at the office, but every once in a while, we went into the field to make sure things were progressing as planned.
For example, they were carrying out a shoot at Kalpitiya for the oceans episode and they wanted a location on the Kalpitiya Peninsula between the lagoon and the sea; a rare sight to find. We eventually found a place at the Dutch Bay. I went ahead on a scouting mission, worked out the locations, worked out the logistics and went in for the first two to three days of the shoot.
Q: Did you face any significant obstacles during filming?
A: I came across such an obstacle with the BBC team for Monsoon, in that, although the part with the whales was a success, there was an issue with the permits for filming some of the coral reefs in Kalpitiya. We had to scrap that part of the shoot for a couple of days. But I think it was the right decision as we could not oppose the authorities.
There were instances where the weather intervened and we were unable to find whales until the final day.
A: It depends on the setting, whether you are travelling by boat in places like Mirissa or in the back of a safari jeep in Yala, or even walking in the Sinharaja forest. When I visit Yala, I wrap my equipment in cloth as it gets dusty. I also have a beanbag.As soon as you see an animal, you need to find a way to stop where it is comfortable without spooking it. Each animal has its own comfort zone in terms of flight distance to a vehicle. If you master that, you would be successful. When you spot an animal, you should quickly stop and put the camera on the beanbag, adjust the settings and then take the shot. But, it is still difficult as animals tend to move a lot. Sometimes, you have to change lenses quickly or get another camera.
A: Yes. If you look at the dry zone ecosystem, elephants are the dominant wildlife.
They need to roam and feed and they are competing with us for resources, which is the unfortunate reality. When it comes to elephants, they require space.
It had been found that they don’t fare well if you capture them in one area and relocate them to another. They become disoriented. A few of them adjust, but others perish in the process.
The issue is that earlier, elephants moved around freely through jungles. Now, there are paddy fields and villages in the way. But I think the solution lies in managing people’s expectations, educating them so that they could learn to coexist with elephants.
There are people who do this professionally, who are connected to animal rights movements, conservation movements. They put their lives at risk in terms of issues such as poaching.
But I think we all could do it in our own way. We should raise awareness for such issues rather than always showing beautiful images.
Q: Earlier this year, the government restricted the number of jeeps that could enter Yala to 500 and then 600 a day. Do you think this is an effective solution?
When I spoke to people regarding the issue, the general opinion was that it was too much for Yala.
Maybe, we should cap it where it is now and take that lesson to heart so that history does not repeat itself at similar parks such as, Wilpattu.
We are lucky in Sri Lanka as everything is within half a day’s drive. If you look at Africa, they have megafauna, but do not have marine wildlife, endemic birds or rainforests in those areas. If you take India, they have everything we have, minus the whale-watching aspect, but you have to travel far to reach anywhere significant. We live in a compact little island and that possesses all of the above, so it is imperative that we protect our wildlife.