On the first evening safari into the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary, we realized that the winter sunset is bewitchingly beautiful with a spectacular array of colors lighting up the sanctuary during the twilight zone. So we decided that we would spend every evening in the sanctuary photographing this magical twilight zone.
This evening was no different. We had photographed the sunset and were on our way out of the sanctuary. That's when we encountered a Rhinoceros by the side of the jeep tracks. The driver switched off the engines immediately, since by now he knew that we were keen to photograph wildlife in action. There was also another jeep, which had reversed and parked ahead of us. Unmindful of the fact that we were sandwiched between the Rhino and the other jeep, we took a couple of pictures of this handsome beast. That's when a tourist from the other jeep started clicking photographs with the camera flash on and the blinding flashlight unsettled the Rhino.
Rhinos' do have poor eyesight. And in this scenario, the fact that the light was going down fast, made matters worse. The unsettled Rhinoceros decided to charge us; we got one set of images before the charging Rhino came pretty close. The driver then hurriedly started the jeep and took off as the Rhino was zeroing in on us. It was a close call!
Here are a few images from that thrilling encounter. Please note all images are near full frame taken with the D300 and 300mm f2.8 lens combination. The pinkish twilight zone lighting forced us to crank up the ISO to 1600 and it was a challenge to get crisp images with the shutter speed dipping to 1/25sec.
This evening was no different. We had photographed the sunset and were on our way out of the sanctuary. That's when we encountered a Rhinoceros by the side of the jeep tracks. The driver switched off the engines immediately, since by now he knew that we were keen to photograph wildlife in action. There was also another jeep, which had reversed and parked ahead of us. Unmindful of the fact that we were sandwiched between the Rhino and the other jeep, we took a couple of pictures of this handsome beast. That's when a tourist from the other jeep started clicking photographs with the camera flash on and the blinding flashlight unsettled the Rhino.
Rhinos' do have poor eyesight. And in this scenario, the fact that the light was going down fast, made matters worse. The unsettled Rhinoceros decided to charge us; we got one set of images before the charging Rhino came pretty close. The driver then hurriedly started the jeep and took off as the Rhino was zeroing in on us. It was a close call!
Here are a few images from that thrilling encounter. Please note all images are near full frame taken with the D300 and 300mm f2.8 lens combination. The pinkish twilight zone lighting forced us to crank up the ISO to 1600 and it was a challenge to get crisp images with the shutter speed dipping to 1/25sec.
9 comments:
Woah, that sure would have given me a fright. These are really neat images. Glad that you all are OK~
You did very well under these unfavourable conditions. I am very impressed by the great quality of your shots (and the size of the mighty beast)!
Fantastic shots. He is ready for all the action.
Wow these are very impressive and yes, you might have been quite close. Lucky you it did not charge!! Beautiful just like the psots I've missed!
Wow, very impressive!
Great photos! Never had the privilege of seeing one of these in real life, only the African rhino which are equally in trouble of survival due to poaching for their horn.
Thanks for helping via your photography.
Blog contains aggressive and nice pictures of Rhino that it show the very cute example of an expert photographer. thanks for sharing this nice blog with all of us.
I am absolutely sure that the adrenaline level was high.
What an encounter.
dealing with big critters like this sure sounds hairy.. at least you left with nary a scratch.. :)
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