Mongoose View

For sometime now, I have been fascinated by the thought "If I were a Mongoose in the wild?". I am aware of the risks it might pose and also the concern for the personal safety. At the same time, I was committed not to break the law of the jungle!

I decided to experiment during my recent trip to Serengeti (July 2012). It all started with my one of my favourites - Zebra. They are vary of any movement and sound. I had to be careful not to alert (but failed). Used the thick, tall grass as the foreground and the mountain as the background and tried a few shots.

Next was the turn of a herd of Buffaloes. I was most worried when I saw the look on their faces. But I decided to venture in to the open, crawled a bit to take up the right spot - in the full view of the herd which was not very happy. Managed to take a few images and slowly retreated to my vehicle.

Then came the magic in my life.

Saw a huge herd of elephants of all sizes at some distance. With the young ones in the herd, I know, elephants are one hell of dangerous creatures.

Influenced by "Mad" Mike and Mark, especially Mike, I was strategising my thoughts of being a Mongoose against the mighty African Elephants.

Asking my guide to watch my "back", I ventured into the wild. With adrenaline pumping, after checking the wind direction (to ensure that my scent is not carried to the tusker), took a hiding behind the tall grass. Was literally on the battleground - my training during my days in NCC and the rifle range came handy now. Armed with my Nikon D3S, 200 - 400 lens and a bean bag started shooting the tusker which was at a good distance of over 200 meters with the hope (and confidence) that he will be my poster boy! Images can't express the view I had from the box office in the open air theatre!!!

I had a sense that he knows my presence. He did walk in my direction.

Then it dawned on me that the wind direction has changed and he definitely knew my presence.

I was excited about taking this image. This is a full frame image at 200 mm!

Next second I saw the blurred image in my viewfinder and knew (Thats because of another story of my brush with a Jackal in Bharatpur) it is time to pull back. I realised we were too close (less than 15 feet) to each other.

The Mongoose slowly backed out and climbed into the jeep. My friend came close to the Jeep and gave me one look and told me something and walked away.

I am still reliving those moments. I promise I will be careful!!!!

Cheers till the next note.

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve - August 2010

I started on my second trip to Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in 4 months to look at the terrain in a different season and capture some bird life. Last trip was in April 2010 – peak of summer. I heard from Manish Varma that there has been plenty of rain (that means tiger sighting can not be the priority) and the forest is having a good green cover. Manish took care of all arrangements for both the trips and I like him for his perseverance and crisis management skills!

I started from Chennai in Grand Trunk Express (GT) which leaves at 7.15 pm and reaches Chandrapur at 9.20 p.m. Another 45 minutes of travel to Moharli and I ended up at the MTDC Resort. The resort is basic with a decent restaurant whish serves hot food on prior order.

If you need to remain in contact with the world Reliance GSM phone is the best option. Remember the park is closed on Tuesdays.

After a good lunch and rest, we left for Tadoba around 3 p.m. The green of the forest and the wonderful smell was a refreshing change from the concrete jungle. The drive was not very exciting but for a few shots of Lapwing and Langurs. Had a good night’s rest at MTDC Resort.

After an overnight heavy rain, morning sky was clear and we entered through the Moharli gate at 6 a.m. Day started with the sighting of a Honey Buzzard. I was happy with myself for spotting a Monitor lizard on the trunk of a tree. Since it was stationery, after a few shots, I decided to experiment HDR photography in the wild. Here is the image.

I do remember an earlier trip to Sikkim (5 years back) where I was shown a Spotted Dove and told that it is uncommon to sight the bird! Tadoba was full of them. When I saw one of them on the tree top, I remembered the hot discussion going on within the Photographic Society of Madras Google Group on the need (or not) of a light meter for nature photography. I decided to do two sets of images and will post them soon.

Returned back to the resort for a plate of Poha and a good 2 hrs rest. I was worried about the afternoon because of a heavy downpour that lasted for an hour. Fortunately the sky cleared around 2.30 p.m. and we were back in the Tadoba region by 3.15 p.m.

It was a Shikra in a lovely perch with nice background to be followed by a pair of Spotted Doves. After a drive into the pristine forest with a lovely smell (I did Pranayama for 10 minutes in the Jeep).

I could smell the love in the air of Tadoba!

I decided to focus on the spotted doves. At that moment popped up a scene for a few seconds, I am sure I will not see in the wild again!. A pair of spotted doves was engaged in the most romantic conversation which culminated in the obvious act. I was there to capture them all in a burst of 20 frames. Thanks to Ramnath for his guidance on creating the movie from still images using Imovie. Click here to see movie.

I had the opportunity to have tiger darshan on day 3 for ten seconds and was able to capture two images. On the fourth day I was with a male tiger for over one hour. Thanks to noisy visitors and shadowing jeeps he decided not to cross the road (which was perhaps his intention) and to rest under a tree and finally move to the interior of the forest.

During my return by GT, friendly attendants in the train decided to get soft iddlies and excellent sambar from Warrangal station. I enjoed the dinner and had a good night sleep to wake up again in the concrete jungle!!!

I hope to be in Tadoba again soon. This place fascinates me…..

Nature Photography?

This article on me appeared in THE HINDU on the 22nd August 2010.

After reading this, I was asking myself "What is the meaning of Nature photography?".

I started browsing the net for an answer ( I always believe there will be one more person who would have made life simple!). There was no need to go far. I stumbled upon a very interesting posting and discussion on that.

Here it is:

http://www.naturelyrics.com/blog/creative-artistic-nature-photography/nature-photographer-an-identity-crisis/

Happy reading.

Cheers

Srini

Photo Competitions

Here is the answer for the question of which photography competitions when:

http://www.photocompetitions.com/

Keep participating. Winning ??? Thats not the only reason I take pictures !!!

Cheers

Srini

I moved my focus

Well, Finally Nature Images have moved from Smugmug to Zenfolio. Will take a few weeks to upload the pictures.

First impression - I find Zenfolio more user friendly - especially for a dumbo like me who knows nothing about HTML coding!

Cheers

Srini

I am moving

I am in the process of moving my images from one service provider to another. I will complete this in the next few weeks.

In photo talk, I plan to share (not teach) information on my travel, about my good and bad images and about many interesting people I have been meeting during my pursuit of that evading single ultimate image!

Join the Photo Talk and make noise!

Cheers

Srini