Adventure & Wildlife Magazine - Vol 1|Issue 5-6| Nov 16 - Jan 17 Vol 1|Issue 5-6| Nov 16 - Jan 17 | Page 90

ADVENTURE & WILDLIFE
that close). He was looking very pale and was hungry
too, but these things weren’t a bother to him as he still
carried himself with his trademark charisma and attitude.
Many a time he stared right into the camera. One could
call it as our sheer luck or the effect of Mr.Praveen’s luck
rubbing off on us; and then all of a sudden, the Prince
turned and started walking towards us, looking straight
into the camera for few seconds.
Making eye contact staring eye to eye with the majestic
royalty of the forest through my viewfinder, has always
been my dream date with the Boldest. He is really bold
and handsome even though he is aged now. This tiger has
lived his life royally and still continues to do so. Hence,
he is called “Prince”.
The Princely nap
Location: Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Karnataka
Date: 11/09/16, 6:11:29 PM
Camera Info: Nikon D750, Nikkor 200-500 F5.6
Metadata: Focal length- 500mm, Aperture- F/5.6,
Shutter Speed - 1/500sec, ISO – 4000, Exposure (-0.33)
Many photographers dream of shooting a very good
series in their life as a photographer. One such moment
Location: Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Karnataka
which I enjoyed personally, is from the Bandipur Tiger
Date: 10/09/16, 8:21:42 AM
Reserve, where the Tiger named “Prince” had made a kill,
Camera Info: Nikon D750, Nikkor 200-500 F5.6
ate his fill, and had come water to waterhole for taking
Metadata: Focal length- 200mm, Aperture- F/5.6,
Shutter Speed - 1/1000sec, ISO – 1000, Exposure some rest. As we say,
(-0.33)
“Information is vital”, we got information from one of the
Ever since, my journey as a wildlife photographer vehicle drivers that “Prince” was spotted sitting in water
started, I have come across a lot of tigers and leopards in and he moved out after seeing the vehicle. We went in
my path. But, the day with the Bolde st of them all was an search of him; we searched near the lake area and heard
eye opener to me. According to me, this tiger is one of the few calls from Langur and there was a pungent scent in
“BOLDEST” male tigers in the whole of South India. the air too.
He covers a very large territory in Bandipur tourism zone
and doesn’t even bother the presence of the tourists. He
also has a history of killing many tigers in their territorial
fights .
Close encounter with the Prince
This trip was the most amazing trip that I went on
with the BWP (Bangalore Wildlife Photographers),
a group which was led by Mr. Praveen Siddannavar,
a gem of a person with abundant knowledge; we all
were riding on his luck to sight this huge tiger “Prince”,
The Bold creature walked along with the jeeps for more
than an hour. He was very desperate to hunt and stalked
a couple of deer and also made an unsuccessful attempt
to kill a Gaur. He was just 2-7 feet away from us; we could
have touched him if we had extended our hand (he was
90
Vol 1|Issue 5-6|Nov 16 - Jan 17