Patience pays in wildlife photography

Wildlife photography is not always about being in the right place at the right time. It is also about having patience, and waiting for that right moment to come by when our cameras can start clicking. It is about spotting wildlife using tracks, sound, smell and of course keeping your fingers crossed for some good luck. Here we share with you such an experience that we had.

All images have been taken with the D300, 300mm f2.8 at 300mm focal length. Pl. note that all images are copyright of Thomas and Shilpy and in case you are interested in any image, pl. contact us at suresh_anand@hotmail.com

During one of our drives through the Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary, we noticed this Rhino standing amongst tall grass at a distance from the game tracks. We realized that he was waiting for us to move on so that he could cross over to the other side. Sensing this, we decided to wait there and photograph him crossing the road.Rhinos have poor eye sight and they depend heavily on their sense of smell and here you see him doing exactly that - smelling us out. We decided to wait and see whether the Rhino would lose its patience and cross the road in spite of us being there. Well, that was not to be and he tracked back and we lost him in the tall grass. However, we were convinced that he was going to cross over. But the only question was when and where would he emerge.

After about waiting for 30 minutes, we got our answer when we suddenly saw a Rhino cross the road way off from where we were waiting. But we were wrong. Because the huge bull Rhino, that we were tracking, was not the one who crossed. He emerged from the tall grass less than 50 feet from the Jeep soon after the Rhino above had crossed and gave us some frame filling compositions!