In ! Hook, Line & Sinker

Bandhavgarh National Park

The Wild Life became a constant go to for me thanks to one amazing sighting that pretty much highlighted how difficult yet rewarding this hobby can be and honestly, it’s been a learning experience where I learn about myself, us as a species and the others that we share this amazing planet with. No intention of stopping when it’s just so much fun, adventure and learning. I highly recommend it.

The year was 2017 and I had just seen my first forest and tiger a couple of months before this. I had been photographing mostly landscapes and still life till then and thought I was the bees knees with my brand new Canon 80D and it’s 24 MP sensor paired with a Tamron 150-600 mm lens. That kit that got me all the way to 2021. Honestly, I was a little unsure about the lens purchase. It was a lot of money for me back then and I wasn’t really sure if wildlife would stick. But, the first experience with a rented lens was so good that I had put the money in although at the time, I was considering a used lens. In my heart, I knew I had loved my first time but I had some doubts. Doubts, if it’d stay exciting. Landscapes were just not doing it for me anymore.

I travelled with a group which had an experienced captain to teach you the ropes of wildlife and the photography of it all. The destination was Ranthambore National Park and 3 full day safaris there. Noob that I was, I thought that having the full day permit would increase my chances in the forest. I know better now. It usually doesn’t. Rajasthan is hot and animals aren’t out in mid day heat even in winter. A full day permit, especially in Rajasthan is throwing your money down the toilet and a lot of it. Now, if you’re a film crew that needs set up time, the rules of the game may be different, but for us normal folks with hand helds, the middle of the day is for your siesta time to catch up on sleep you lost cause of the early morning safari’s start. Sure, the whole game is chance and you never really know, but the cost to benefit ratio just doesn’t add up from my vantage point now that I’ve seen professional crews and how they set up in a spot and the guys literally lay there all day hoping they picked their spot well cause moving for them isn’t an easy option.

Success those days was measured in success of Tiger sightings.They were the main event. They still are I recon in the tiger parks but then, I don’t go with groups anymore. Me, I liked photographing everything even back then cause everything was new for me and it was always more about the image. I remember being told off a few times cause I was keeping the group when they heard of Tiger movement from somewhere else. But in all honesty, no one was seeing any tigers. Full day permits also mean that you can enter any zone and we searched alright. We searched high and low, we searched near the water and up on the mountain of Ranthambore’s difficult terrain. Our backs hurt and the smokers among us grumbled about the overall difficulty added by nicotine withdrawal. But, no tigers for 2 days. It was looking like a washout. There were people in the resort who had been there for 5 days and more and seen nothing. One dude had grown so frustrated that he detached the middle seat in his vehicle and had put in a huge ice box full of beer in it's place. He figured, he was paying so much for his week of full day bookings, he might as well enjoy it somehow. The Tigers refused to show themselves to anyone. I had my birds and monkeys but that wasn’t anywhere near as thrilling and adrenalin jerking as my first tiger experience two months ago had been. Oddly, a new bird in good light these days gets me more excited than a Tiger that won’t be a good shot for whatever reason. Priorities change in this game and the goal post shifts a lot along your journey while you keep hunting that adrenalin that you get making incidental pictures. I guess you can just anticipate the shots a lot better with time and the so called dangerous animals stop scaring you as well.

We went out in the morning of day three just like the first two days and were parked near the fenced mess area, putting our lens caps on and getting ready to get breakfast out when our group’s captain started whispering loud , “wait, wait, wait”, “Don’t move. Let the car behind get past. I SAID WAIT !” The driver froze for a second and then pretended like nothing was up and the rest of us noobs looked around trying to see, while pretending not to see, with no idea what we were looking for. So funny. So, a couple of cars got past us and we waited for them to get down the road and then the driver gunned it offroad and to the side. There, right in front of us, walking straight towards us were 3 Tigers. Two were cubs while the larger mother followed last. Wait ! What? I didn’t know whether to be happy or to concentrate on taking pictures. How do you take pictures when your hands are shaking so much? That’s 3 tigers and in total Tiger style they didn’t seem like they were gonna walk around any car. 3 tigers walking straight at us. Which one to focus on? They walked right up to the car and went past. I could've leaned over and touched one. There was no one else there except us in that gypsy. What emotions in overdrive man ! Some experiences just have to be experienced. Words don’t ever do justice. This was one of those for me. I’d never seen cubs before and these two were being so playful about their trek. It was the legendary Noor and her daughters Noorie and Sultana. I doubt I’ve seen any other sightings with them goofing off like they were here. All of them are now among the legend tigresses of Ranthambore, each with her own achievements and attached lore all documented now thanks to social media and we had them for a long time till they disappeared up a mountain that was across a stream from the forest road. We didn’t see any other Tigers that day. It wouldn’t have been such a special experience, I think if our team lead and driver hadn’t kept the sighting secret. That made it all so special for all of us in that car. But that long sighting of those three had everyone in our group in such high spirits that the others in the car with me started photographing birds and monkeys as well for the rest of the day and somehow my constant enquiries about bird names had other guys writing the names down as well.

As for me, the decision had been made. The lens was a good purchase and I had decided that I wanted to do wildlife even before getting back to the hotel and getting a good look at my Tiger photographs. The drought of excitement for the first two days and the final release on the third day had shown me what this game was all about and I liked it. I liked it a lot that it was chance, skill, knowledge art, science and history all rolled into one. It was as much about the pictures you made as it was about the pictures you missed. It was about the chase more than the catch. It was much more cause it was all about thinking in the moment while planning a while ago. It is so much and what it is itself is always in a state of flux. Most importantly it is about us, our home and our place on Earth. In hindsight, that trip wasn’t two full day safaris wasted for me. That trip led me down the road that makes me who I am and how I see the world today. Doing that trip was one of the best decisions I’ve taken in my life.