Frames From Wild

It’s been almost 6 years since I fall in love with the jungles and wilderness; and it has been a fantastic quest till now. As a Nature Photographer, I have witnessed lots of precious moments  during my journey and I could capture many of them; of course, there were lot of misses as well. These shots may not be artistically beautiful or may not be perfect in photographic perspective due to various reasons – bad light, distance to the subject, limitation of the equipment etc. But many of them are close to my heart especially those, for which I have struggled a lot. There are some accidental shots as well which I got only because of pure luck.  Listing out some of them…

This shot I have taken from Mudumalai and in fact this this my first leopard shot. It was a leisure trip with my friends. As a part of our tour package we went for a morning nature walk. On the way our naturalist stopped us and said there is a leopard laying on the rock. It was between the trees and only the head was visible to us. I took few shots; but by by the time my friends had run already; even I also felt the threat and just ran behind them. Actually the leopard just left the place once he noticed us. I was carrying the 150-500mm Sigma lens and the leopard was at a distance of just 10 to 12 meters from us. I shot it with the full zoom of 500mm with a stutter speed of 1/40, handheld, and without even changing the camera settings. In fact I didn’t get time even to zoom out the lens and compose the frame properly. But only I could able to take the shot and surprisingly couple of them were sharp and it came out really good. So this is a lucky frame for me 🙂

This shot I got from Bandipur National park in Karnataka. This is the scene, “Leopard on Treetop” – I would love to photograph the most. This was photographed when I went for the government bus safari which was only for one hour. Usually we will not see anything in this short safaris. But that day, within 15 minutes we spotted the beauty! totally unexpected. Though it was back light, I loved the curious look of the cat with the greenish habitat and in fact it was one of the much awaited shot that time. Still I have a dream shot in my mind and I am waiting for it to come 🙂

Another memorable moment in my journey; the prey & the predator. This shot I have taken from Masai Mara two years back. I was fortunate enough to see a cheetah hunt there. Before hunting the wild beast, both looked each other for a moment and luckily I could capture the moment. The action happened around a distance of 100 meters from our vehicle, so the image wasn’t quite sharp. But after cropping and bit of post processing I got something like this. 

Another hunt I have seen in Tadoba where Maya – the beautiful tigress chased and killed a spotted deer. Those moments were really precious for me. I could capture the entire sequence of the hunt; it was just amazing…

One of my favourite shot – I have taken this from Corbett National Park. We were searching for the Tiger family near Gairal Rest House and I got this shot on the way. There were lot of peafowls on the road and few flew off once our jeep came near to them. After waiting some time three of them started dancing. I focused on the first one which was near to the jeep and took lot of shots changing the aperture, focus etc. It was only for few seconds and after they went inside the bushes.

Siamese Frogmouths – I got this from one of my recent trips to Thattekkad. In fact they are not siamese; A male and juvenile male (father and son – may be). They were sitting as if they are sticked together. Sri Lankan Frogmouth is one of the rare bird and there are only few places in India where you can find them. Thattekkad bird sanctuary in Kerala is one of the prominent place among them. They are so camouflagic and even with a couple of meters distance you won’t be able to identify them; also very difficult to get a clean perch. I was lucky to get this this shot almost with a clean perch.

I got the shot form Latpanchar of West Bengal. The area is outskirts of Manananda WLS and I have visited there to photograph the elusive Rufous-necked Hornbill. I feel really lucky to get this shot – the most beautiful liplock I have ever seen 🙂

Blue Whale – the largest animal in the world; I could photograph it from Sri Lanka last year. There is a place in Sri Lanka called Mirissa, it is a beautiful beach and the whale watching is very famous over there. There was a particular area over there where a good number of blue whales reside and the local people says the whales will not migrate to other region. We need to travel around 3 hours into the sea to reach that area. After waiting an hour I could get a shot of this magnificent creature. Only a small part of the body was visible and clicking was very difficult from the boat as it was shaking badly on the waves.

Peeping Jackal – I have taken this from Timber Depot in Dandeli. The Depot was near to the Dandeli forest and sometimes we can spot wild animals in that area. I was doing birding over there; I have seen a pack of jackals roaming over there and when they saw me they just ran back; one pub was peeping at me. It was behind the log and I was able to see only it’s head. It was curiously looking at me; I took few shots and after extreme crop and post processing I got a this image.

The screaming Malabar Trogon – I have taken this from Ganeshgudi in Dandeli. Malabar Trogon is an endemic species and treated as one of the jewel of Western ghat. Ganeshgudi is one of the prominent place where we can find this beauty. The bird was inside a bamboo tree and it wasn’t a clean catch; but the eye level and the opened beak made the shot beautiful.

There are lot of shots for which I have struggled a lot, like the Red-headed Trogon (above) from Mahananda WLS. I had wandered around three hours in the forest to get this shot; that too in extremely bad light condition. Shots like this are precious for me as it is the outcome of my patience & hard work even though they are not perfect catches.

There are few of moments from Kabini which I really love to narrate. One was the Crested Serpent Eagle with a snake – I saw the bird with the kill; but it few off, I missed the flying shot but it sat in a perch with the kill and started eating it. Though it was quite long distance I got a shot with clear catch light.

Another one was the Wilddog fighting, I was fortunate to see the hunt and after that two of the dogs in the pack started fighting. It was for few seconds, but I could capture the moment. The same day I have seen the Spotted deer mating near the Kabini backwater.

In my opinion a perfect shot should be sharp, well composed, with proper angle and should have a ‘wow’ factor in it. If it can convey a message or create a feel, it would be the best. I am pretty sure these snaps are not perfect in that perspective, they lack either clarity, sharpness or clean background but still I love them as they are the windows to those beautiful moments I spent with the nature…