On a Tiger Photo Safari in India with Suzi Eszterhas

I'm back from three weeks photographing tigers and other wild animals in India.  (Katherine stayed home.) This was one of the most interesting and enjoyable trips I have ever taken.  There were a total of ten photographers including myself. They were an intelligent and interesting group and a pleasure to travel with.  The trip was highly successful in terms of the number and quality of photos taken. This is due to the experience and management skill of our leader, Suzi Eszterhas.  She knows when and where to go and has the contacts with the best drivers and guides to find the animals.

(In the photo above, Suzi is the lady in the light blue shirt on the smaller elephant.)

I have seen many wild animals in Africa, Norway, Alaska, and the American West, but nothing is as exciting as the sudden appearance of a Bengal Tiger.  They are not only colorful but they are also the largest of the big cats.  The male Bengal is considerably larger than a lion.

A couple of things that I learned:

• It's wise to carry two cameras, one at the ready to snap a few photos if a tiger suddenly appears and a second on a tripod with a big lens for careful photography if the tiger sticks around.
• Instead of single exposures, set your camera to take 3 to 5 frames a second and blaze away.  The tiger might blink, the elephant or vehicle you are sitting on might move, you might flinch.  With more frames, the chances are better that you will have a sharp one.
• Riding on elephants or riding in vehicles on roads are equally effective in finding and photographing tigers.  
• Photographing tigers is a lot like fishing for trout or salmon.  There will be good days and bad days. Success is part luck and part skill.  In a fishing group there will be one or two who have caught a lot and one or two who have not caught many yet.  It's the same with a group photographing tigers.

All in all, I ended up with a total of couple hundred photos of about a dozen tigers.  Most photos were poor sightings of tigers partially obscured by grass and brush. A handful of photos were much better than I ever expected. Eventually, I will put up a site with a portfolio of images.  For the time being, here is a male Bengal tiger.

During the trip, Suzi conducted lessons on using Photoshop to improve the quality of wildlife photos.  The net result is that I have learned new techniques and have gained appreciation of a higher standard of quality.  I need time to process the photos that I have taken before publishing.