Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]again - enjoying the journey through your photographs the Treepie photograph is quite extraordinary Regards, George Lottermoser george at imagist.com http://www.imagist.com http://www.imagist.com/blog http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist On Mar 25, 2010, at 4:09 AM, H&ECummer wrote: > We arrived in Ranthambhore too late for the afternoon safari so we > had dinner and went to bed early with high expectations about the > morning. > The knock on the door at 5:30 came awfully fast. Tea or coffee plus > cookies were served in the lodge foyer and by 6:00 everyone was in > their jeeps, wrapped in blankets against the cold and provided with > towels to shield the cameras from the dust. The gate to the Reserve > opened at 6:30 and all the jeeps and canters (trucks that take > about thirty passengers each) rush into the park to get to places > where the tigers are still roaming. They drive fast over the rough > tracks and raise a lot of dust - thus the need to protect the > equipment with towels. > By 9:30 or so the tigers have all settled against the heat of the > day and everyone leaves the Reserve. We head back to the lodge and > have breakfast and download pictures and, and rest up for lunch. > Lunch is at 1:30 and by 2:30 we are back in the jeeps, this time in > shirt sleeves and hats because it has warned up to plus 30 degrees > C, and with a fresh towel to protect the equipment. The drive into > the reserve is more leisurely in the afternoon because the tigers > usually don't stir until later and everyone has time to get to > where they think the tigers may stir. The driver and guide stop the > jeep every so often and turn off the motor to listen for warning > calls from the deer and the monkeys that a tiger is on the move. > Then we move in the direction of the calls. By 6:30 it is dusk and > you come home to the lodge, have a drink (Kingfisher beer) and a > shower and a late dinner and fall into bed about 9:30 - exhausted > and waiting for the morning wake up call so you can do it all over > again. I did this for three straight days and did not see a single > cat. I did get lots of pictures of other wild life - see below - > but no Tigers. I was beginning to think that Jayanand and the > entire Indian subcontinent was fooling with me as everyone around > me at lunch and dinner talked about "tiger this and tiger that". > But not me - I was coming up dry. :-( > > Here are some pictures from my no tiger days: > > The langur monkey - there were many of them and they were helpful > in warning where the tigers were - even if not for me. > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/Langur > +Smile.jpg.html > > http://tinyurl.com/ybtusg8 > > Two more langurs and a baby - it was the birthing season and there > were a lot of monkey babies around: > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/ > 2mnkbabeW.jpg.html > > http://tinyurl.com/yc7bkdr > > There were lots of birds that I didn't know. > > Here's the Treepie - which is very bold and will fly at you and eat > cookies from your hand > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/TreepieW.jpg.html > > http://tinyurl.com/ylj6ub3 > > The Treepie is bold with the deer as well as you can see from this > picture: > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/ > TreePDeerHW.jpg.html > > http://tinyurl.com/yhqdfc7 > > There are lots of water birds around the water holes too, > > Here is a white egret on take off - this is an uncropped full frame > picture taken with Jayanand's > 200 - 400 zoom. I don't think I could have taken the picture with > the Telyt or the Nikkor 300 unless I > was very very lucky. I think this may be my best non tiger picture > of the lot: > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/ > CraneFlyW.jpg.html > > http://tinyurl.com/yetbwzz > > And here is a low flying crane - closely cropped - taken with the > 400 Telyt: > > http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/ > CraneFly1W.jpg.html > > http://tinyurl.com/ydksed2 > > Jayanand took pity on me by day four and invited me to ride in his > jeep. My > luck then changed and tigers started to appear in front of my lenses. > My first tiger pictures are in the next posting. > > C & C always welcome > > Cheers > > Howard. > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information