Since I purchased the Canon EOS R6, I had taken a few nature photos at Sandwell Park which just a walking distance from my home in West Bromwich. The main intention was to try out how accurate the animal eye auto-focus was and I was quite happy with the way the camera would focus on the eye of the animal or bird even when moving. Here are some samples of what I had captured over the past couple of days.
Before arriving back in England, I had decided to do an overnight safari at Jhilmil Jheel. I was in the hope of actually photographing elephants and possibly sighting of leopard which are residents of the area but rarely seen. Anyhow after a morning and afternoon safari session, we were not even able to sight Chital or Sambar. This was a very disappointing trip in itself but even though I had decided to atleast make the most of it. We saw plenty of water buffalo which were either domesticated or feral or a mix of both. However even though they were also somewhat residents of the forest, it was great to observe them within this environment. The main difference between the domesticated and wild water buffaloes is that the wild ones have larger horns and weigh more than captive or domesticated ones.
Other than photographing wildlife, one can get nice wide angle landscape shots. The best time is early morning or late evening because this is when you have soft golden light. Sometimes a telephoto lens even at 300mm can also capture amazing landscapes however for most shots during this trip, I had used both the Canon 17-40mm f/4 L lens and also the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L lens. Here is a selection of landscape shots taken during the trip.
Elephants are very easily seen here in the national park and are quite interesting animals to observe and photograph. These are social animals and the largest and oldest female in the herd known as the matriarch leads the group and the group follows her where ever she goes. The group consists of daughters of the matriarch and it’s offspring. The herd can include male elephants but until the age of 10 to 12 years. After that they achieve sexual maturity and in order to avoid inbreeding, they are expelled from the group by the matriarch. The matriarch is the one who makes decisions for the entire herd family because she is the oldest and most experienced. The animals have strong social bonds and they also help each other with social care. Anyway not too get too detailed in this post, I am sharing a number of photos which I took on this trip.
I had taken a cab from Dehradun to Ramnagar to join a few friends for a one week safari at Jim Corbett national park. The first night we had stayed at the “Corbett Green View Garden and Stay” guesthouse. The trip from Dehradun took around 5 hours and on arrival met up with Maneet Pal Singh, Samyak Kaninde and Manmohan Bindra, all three with a deep interest in wildlife photography. Anyhow on arrival at the guesthouse, I met up with them in the dining area after I had checked into my room. I paid the cab driver and after that he took off.
Few days back on a Sunday morning, me and a few others had decided to visit Chilla zone of Rajaji National Park. We left around 11:30 from Dehradun and arrived just within the hour. Gates did not open until 2:30pm so we had plenty of time. On this trip, we only opted to do the afternoon jeep safari. We did all the bookings on arrival. Jeep costs are Rs.2000 plus Rs.250 for vehicle road fee and an additional entrance fee of Rs.150 per person depending on the number of people there are for the safari.
On my previous post, I had blogged about Dudhsagar waterfalls. After leaving that area, we decided to head over to Panjim before arriving at Vagator as there was still time. Here I just had to time to get a quick tour of Panjim and its historical churches and monuments.
On my last day in Goa, I made a plan to travel to Dudhsagar waterfalls which was just over 90km drive. The waterfall is located in Bhagwan Mahaveer sanctuary within the Western Ghats. This area is rich for birds and wildlife.I had booked a cab a day earlier to travel to this place. We had left early morning by 8am and reached the location by midday. On the way, we had made a quick stop for breakfast somewhere in Panjim. On arriving at the destination, I had to pay the entry fees for the jeep safari which cost Rs.400 as well as camera fees which I think was around Rs.300. The jeep ride was quite bumpy.
I had gone to the state of Goa back in February of this year. This was mainly for work as I was involved in creating behind the scenes content for the production company’s social media channels on Facebook and Instagram. The prime location was however in the Vagator area and this is where all the cast and crew were staying. After filming had commenced, I had decided to stay an additional 5 days before returning back to Dehradun. I had planned out which places I would visiting in the next 5 days so how of these 5 days, 4 days were spent in Vagator itself and on my last day, I had decided to go to Dudhsagar waterfalls and Panjim. Even in the month of February, the afternoons were quite hot and humid but by evening, the weather would become pleasant.
Here is a showcase of landscape captures taken in and around Dehradun and Mussoorie. For these shots, I had used the Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon 17-40mm L f/4 lens.
