First Tiger spotting in Kabini..

[Manasi Chaphalkar]

We spotted him in the evening when we were in the second half of safari..we had few spottings that day and unexpectedly while we were still on tracks to take turn to another route Prasanna spotted him from this distance..the engine turned off imediately..we watched this beauty for sometime from same distance..he was royally sitting in tracks looking at us..then slowly the driver made an attempt to go bit close..but the moment we made an attempt he got up from the track and went into nearby bush..all this happened in a minute..this is wot i could get with 300mm..as this was my first sighting..it was mesmerizing and memorable..
Canon 550D 70-300mm, Av 5.6,1/15sec , ISO 800, Focal length 300mm, Priority AE
I know i could have increased the ISO and could hav used more Av but i wasn prepared and in jiffy n excitement dnt make any setting changes :-(

Regards
Manasi C

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Congrats on your first tiger sighting. Im sure you had that Non-veg dessert for lunch...

TFS
Roopak

[Sucheth Lingachar]

Beautiful.... Always first Tiger sighting will be memorable... that too u got in Kabini....
I think its out of focus.... focus is not on the tiger...

Yes Roopak She might have had Non-veg Desert for Lunch....

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Wow! Congratulations on the first tiger sighting in the wild.

I never knew one can get tiger sighting after having non-veg dessert. Need to quickly patent the non-veg dessert which JLR Kabini guys had specially created for the IndiaWilds meet.

[Suraj Sreedhar]

Nice feel in the image,nice to see one in Kabini................
TFS

[Rajan Kanagasabai]

Congrats on this spotting and it is certainly a good environmental picture given the light conditions. You were already on ISO 800 and anything higher on the 550 would have become grainy.

I can relate to the excitement. I remember a similar incident (Way back in the days of film camera and on a EOS 88) and in a similar kind of excitement, forgot to switch to AV mode from the Auto mode and the built in flash popped up with a noise and the animal got up and move away, much to the agony and cursing of all the others in the van.

Thanks for sharing

regards
Rajan

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice sighting. Congrats..!! My first tiger sighting I never photographed, I just kept watching the tigress, so you did quite well..and you will have many more sighting in the future . Thanks for sharing.

Nice re-collection of the non-veg desert from Roopak .

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

I am so happy to learn that you have seen Tiger in the wild for the first time. An experience never forgotten.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Manasi Chaphalkar]

Thanks all...for appreciating my first sighting..i agree i dnt focus properly..when i had d focus the engine started suddenly ..i wasn aware..lost balance..n shot went off focus..i then saw the tiger in bushes nearly for 10min..i just kept watching him..dnt fire much shots..
Anyways i had my dessert b4 the safari :-) ..which was veg..i think i will be long associated with and remembered for my non veg dessert! :-)

Regards
Manasi C

[Bhargava Srivari]

Nice to know you have had your quota of tiger sightings opened First tiger is always special and if it's in Kabini, it ought to be all the more so. Not many are blessed to see their first wild tiger in the jungles of the South; I myself had to go all the way to Ranthambore for my opener! Cheers. By the way, was this in December? Unfortunately now, not many portions of the forest is green and Kabini just doesn't look and feel like Kabini! Lucky that you saw the tiger while the surroundings were still green.

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Congrats Manasi on your first tiger sighting. You now have got a taste of what it is to see a tiger in the jungle and believe me its terribly addictive. Hope you see and observe tigers more in your future trips. Thanks for sharing.

[Manasi Chaphalkar]

Thanks Murugan Anantharaman n Bhargava..
Yes this was in december..and Kabini then was quite green..

Regards
Manasi C