Praveen Siddannavar
06-11-2012, 08:42 AM
Severe cyclonic storm 'Nilam' hit Tamil Nadu coast last week, making its impact on entire south India. Even the Rajiv Gandhi National Park, Kabini wasn't spared while I along with few friends made a trip to Kabini. The rain Gods had no mercy whatsoever, it was my first game drive after almost 3 months. As we drove into the forest it poured heavily and the forest as expected was flooded, but it was at its best.
After almost 1:45 mins game drive, with no sightings of any animals except for few spotted deers and a brown fish owl (BFO). We were heading back to the exit gate and suddenly our driver Muddu whispered leopard leopard leopard...
Our immediate reaction was to look into the bushes, then Muddu pointed out towards a teak tree on our left. It took all of us couple of minutes to spot this cat, hats off to Muddu for his spotting skills while in motion.
A young male leopard was perched nicely on a branch and had protection from the rains with help of big teak tree leaves. The time was 5:45pm light was extremely low, but didn't have any choice than to make few high ISO images. This was the perfect start for our trip. More exciting images and sightings to follow, stay tuned...
Camera - Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon f4 500mm lens
EXIF - ISO 3200 Av 4 Tv 1/40sec, EC - 0.3, Subject distance 45M, Bean bag support, Small crop
After almost 1:45 mins game drive, with no sightings of any animals except for few spotted deers and a brown fish owl (BFO). We were heading back to the exit gate and suddenly our driver Muddu whispered leopard leopard leopard...
Our immediate reaction was to look into the bushes, then Muddu pointed out towards a teak tree on our left. It took all of us couple of minutes to spot this cat, hats off to Muddu for his spotting skills while in motion.
A young male leopard was perched nicely on a branch and had protection from the rains with help of big teak tree leaves. The time was 5:45pm light was extremely low, but didn't have any choice than to make few high ISO images. This was the perfect start for our trip. More exciting images and sightings to follow, stay tuned...
Camera - Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon f4 500mm lens
EXIF - ISO 3200 Av 4 Tv 1/40sec, EC - 0.3, Subject distance 45M, Bean bag support, Small crop