Hey, guys,
Just came back from a great trip to Bandhavgarh and Kanha National Parks/ Tiger Reserves in India. Both parks are located in Madhya Pradesh state in India. Bandhavgarh has the highest density of tigers found anywhere. We saw 9 tigers in 3 days at Bandhavgarh and also saw a bunch of other animals and some rare species.

Here's a few headshots of a 2yr old Royal Bengal male taken from the back of an elephant. He was actually walking straight towards our elephant....barely 30 feet away. The mahout (elephant rider) backed up our elephant quickly to avoid a conflict. Actually there was one more tiger(his brother) right next to him and that caused us to worry a bit.

Will post more detailed stories and pictures as soon as I get over the jetlag.

Thx for viewing !!
kiran

# 1

Beautiful shot of a beautiful animal ~ Ron

Wow... this is absolutely amazing!..
I thought tiger photography required a month's effort... I think I will have to put Bandhavgarh and Kanha National Park on my "must visit" list.

I look forward to seeing more!
bruce

Thanks a lot guys, for the kind comments ! I posted a couple more portraits.

Bruce, in Bandhavgarh, there's a saying "In any other park, you are lucky if you see a tiger. In Bandhavgarh, you are unlucky if you don't see (at least) one." :-).

Superb shots! What a great experience this must have been!
Claude

Nice shots, you can't beat seeing these animals in their element! Paul

These are excellent shots, well done!

Thx, Claude, Waldr and Reko !! It indeed was a superb experience, especially to see that the tigers couldn't care less about us humans while they went on with their lives in the jungle. The majestic gait, that intense stare really gives one a self-realization of how weak and vulnerable we really are in front of this powerful animal.

Superior portrait quality here that one usually sees with captive tigers only.

Great work here
Maybe a bit to much saturation especially in image number 4
Can't get enough of these guyz especially when they're not zoo shotz

Nice job

ant

PetKal wrote:
Superior portrait quality here that one usually sees with captive tigers only.

PetKal, thank you very much, appreciate the encouragement !

kiran

anthony whitmo wrote:
Great work here
Maybe a bit to much saturation especially in image number 4
Can't get enough of these guyz especially when they're not zoo shotz

Nice job

ant

Anthony, thx for the sincere comments, I fixed the saturation issue in a few of the images and updated them, thx !!

Kirry

Excellent shots... the first one is stunning. You need to really print it big for the home. Shall swing by for the rest in a few days.

-- V

These are cool!!! I really enjoy the composition in #3!!! It certainly takes a regular subject and makes it interesting. I would be tempted to put a little vignette around it. Nice work on these shots!!!

Thx, Vivek and Brenton !
Brenton, I added some vignetting to #3 and #5 as well, as per your recommendation. Also added a new picture at #7.

great pictures, super sharp, nice light in the eyes on #1 !

Great shots, I love how well you captured his eyes, especially on the first one!

Jim

Juggler Jim wrote:
Great shots, I love how well you captured his eyes, especially on the first one!

Jim

Thx, Jim ! #1 is also my personal favorite solely for the reason that the tiger was moving through the shadows and I literally had 1 second to shoot a high speed burst of 4-5 shots when he stepped into the light partly and his eyes lit up. I wanted the mahout to position me in a spot where I could catch the sunlight in his eyes, and surely the guy did his job. He was rewarded handsomely...hehe.

This was the only picture that came out good from that burst of 5. Considering the fact that the elephant was moving constantly and I had to do this handheld, I was/am very satisfied with the resulting picture :-).

Beautiful set of images Kiran.

thedigitalbean wrote:
Beautiful set of images Kiran.

Hey Aravind, Thx for stopping by !!

Kiran

Fantastic Tiger portrait shots Kiran. Love #5 with it peeking through the grass at you.

ken

These are wonderful images, and because you shot them from an elephant's back they are even greater in terms of reality.
Tough to pick a favorite, but I'd have to say number one, although from a pure boogeyman's point of view number four is deadly.
Awesome stuff.

Mr Zoom wrote:
Fantastic Tiger portrait shots Kiran. Love #5 with it peeking through the grass at you.

ken

Thx a lot, Ken ! #5 was almost eye level since the tiger was sitting at an elevated place and the elephant was down below in a "nullah"(gorge). Pretty scary spot to be in cos the height advantage on the elephant was gone temporarily. :-)

Wayne Willison wrote:
These are wonderful images, and because you shot them from an elephant's back they are even greater in terms of reality.
Tough to pick a favorite, but I'd have to say number one, although from a pure boogeyman's point of view number four is deadly.
Awesome stuff.

Thank you, Wayne for the kind words of praise !

Kiran

Beautiful - thanks for sharing

Lil - - recovering from Sylmar wildfire storms.... so I'm not doing picks