Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve - August 2010

2010-08-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-08-22T04:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-03T18:47:00.001-07:00

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

2010-05-31T01:17:00.000-07:00

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