Over the years, sponsors came in, but his travel style remained simple. Being close to nature, to him, is the biggest luxury.

“In the early years, I focused on birds. The thrill was in discovering new birds. Gradually, my subject matter shifted to mammals,” he says.

To date, his lens has captured nearly all the major species in India — many endangered, some rarely seen even by seasoned professionals.

So far, Shefiq has travelled to 22 countries, from Russia, Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, and more. But before each expedition, he spends one or two years researching a single species,

“When we go into forests, we must follow their rules. No animal is dangerous by nature. It’s our approach that defines their response. It’s us humans who are the real threat,” he smiles.

One of the most defining journeys of Shefiq’s life was in 2017. A 15-day expedition to Mongolia — the land of extreme temperatures, vast steppes, and diverse wildlife.

“Mongolia is largely unexplored, mainly due to its erratic weather. The temperature there can go from -50°C to 45°C. I kept wondering, how animals live in such extremes,” he recalls.

That curiosity took him deep into the wilderness, where he sought out the Przewalski’s horse, once thought to be extinct but reintroduced in the 1990s; the Bactrian camel, rugged and adaptable to ice and sand; and the elusive Pallas’s cat, a thick-furred wild feline that thrives only in sub-zero climates.