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72-Year-Old Photographer Wins Gold at Nature Photography Awards for Stunning Giraffe Image
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Moneycontrol•19-10-2026, 14:31
72-Year-Old Photographer Wins Gold at Nature Photography Awards for Stunning Giraffe Image
- •Seventy-two-year-old Vaidehi Chandrasekar won gold in the Behaviour - Mammals category at the 2026 World Nature Photography Awards.
- •Her award-winning photograph, titled 'Water Ballet', captures a giraffe spraying water into a near-perfect circle at sunset in Botswana.
- •Chandrasekar took up wildlife photography seriously after retiring from systems design support in 2019, learning skills through YouTube, practice, and travel.
- •Using a Nikon Z9 camera with a fast shutter speed, she successfully froze the illuminated water droplets against the fading sunlight.
- •The global competition attracted thousands of entries from 51 countries, aiming to raise awareness for wildlife and environmental conservation.
Key Questions Answered
Vaidehi Chandrasekar won a gold award in the Behaviour - Mammals category at the 2026 World Nature Photography Awards for her photograph titled 'Water Ballet'.
The photograph was captured at Makgadikgadi Pans National Park in Botswana, where fading sunset light illuminated water droplets as a giraffe lifted its head after drinking.
Chandrasekar used a Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera with a 400mm lens, set at a shutter speed of 1/1,000 second, an aperture of f/5.6, and ISO 400 to freeze the water droplets in mid-air.
