Nightmare in Bandipur - Part 2 : E-M1 finds a Leopard!

25th January, 2015

Link to the previous post here

How I passed the night of the 24th January I will never know, but it was a really long, restless one. A photographic catastrophe is something that cannot be put in a few words. Your best lens is like your girlfriend! You are so smitten by her that you take her for granted and when she leaves you in the lurch rather unexpectedly, it is a truly deflating experience! I'm sure no one will disagree on that count!

My Photographic Journey has been an interesting one and the the high point was the day I got my 'girlfriend', the Zuiko 300mm f2.8. That was sometime in December of 2011. It was the best 300mm f2.8 anywhere by any manufacturer and  Olympus' Zuiko lenses are legendary for their rendition of colours. So when my lens broke, I was shell shocked.

Luckily, I had carried my Zuiko 50-200mm f2.8-3.5 SWD another rugged lens that was doing duty before the 300mm  came. It had itself suffered a breakage on a trip to Nagarahole in the summer of 2012. From that experience I had learned that getting these fine lenses repaired, meant shipping them to Singapore or Japan, because Tatsuno did not trust them in anyone else's hands!

I had somehow managed to remove the broken mount ring of the 300mm from the E-M1 and with a prayer I mounted the Zuiko 50-200mm SWD. It worked! So I was not totally handicapped after all. With the digital 2x teleconvertor in the E-M1 I had a 100-400 f 2.8-3.5 now. It would never replace my favourite 'girlfriend' but at least I had a new mate for the E-M1. My previous trip was in December, just before Christmas and for just a day. That was because I had got my E-M1 and wanted to test it out in the field. There were not many photo opportunities because it was raining and I was on a one day trip.

I never knew God's were kind to sad people! The morning safari was all about birds and a lone tusker. The Zuiko 50-200mm SWD was doing a reasonably good job but it would never replace a 300mm f.2.8.

A hoopoe looking for snacks in burnt grass

Streak throated woodpecker (female)

Brahminy starling

Langur with her little one

Tusker

The evening drive was monotonously uninteresting. Forests have never ceased to amaze me in any season but this was an unusual trip. I had lost my 'girlfriend' and I was in depression. It was around 5.00 PM, half way through the safari and we were waiting outside the anti-poaching camp because someone wanted to answer the call of nature!

Suddenly, behind us, appeared a Duster! We backed up to stop them and ask how they got in and our driver realized that one of then was some forest official.

They seemed to be looking at something to their right and when we looked in that direction this is what we saw! A leopard slinking across the track!

It all happened so fast and in a moving vehicle, I did not have time to react. The leopard disappeared into the lantana.

We raced back to our position in front of the anti-poaching camp. There was a waterhole in front of it and the leopard was obviously making a beeline for it! The adrenaline rush that accompanies the sight of a predator is something that defies description. My fiasco of the previous day was forgotten and I only had eyes for a magnificent creature that would make its appearance any moment now!

A few minutes of anxious waiting and a head popped out of the undergrowth.

 It looked around, up into a tree, at us and at the waterhole.

Then decided that this was not a place to be in and walked off into a nullah and disappeared.

For an evening without even a gaur or elephant, this was a bonus. As the excitement settled and we started on our drive back I was reviewing the photos. I suddenly realized that the leopard appeared too small!

I had completely forgotten that I had a different lens attached to my camera and I had not zoomed in! I had shot at around 125 mm and also failed to use the 2x digital converter! A slight disappointment but something I'd have to get used to till my 300mm was repaired.

That was not the last of the leopards on this trip. Watch this space.....

My Photographic Journey - Part 2: E-M1 visits Bandipur

The trip to Bandipur on December 20th did not really turn out the way I would have liked it to. In the first place I have never made a trip to Bandipur with time constraints. This was one. I had been able to book only one night and it seemed the wrong time. With a depression over the ocean and the weather had been looking ominous. Besides, I had the reputation of leading rain to Bandipur!

At the end of the trip we knew the weather had cheated us. Even the evening safari was unproductive. One solitary elephant and a small herd of gaur was unbecoming of Bandipur. The morning drive was a mere formality. It was extremely cold and misty so it was unreasonable to expect any animal or bird to stir out before the sun was high in the sky. If you love the jungle for what it offers you can't be disappointed. Every thing about Bandipur is beautiful.

The morning safari started with the news of a buffalo kill, the previous evening, at the Mangala reservoir. This reservoir on the eastern part of the tiger reserve abuts the farmlands surrounding Mangala village. It is not unusual for cattle to stray into the forest from the village and very often some of them fall victim to the tigers of Bandipur. So the expectations were high though I knew better. The formality of signing at the reception center was over and all the vehicles made a beeline for the reservoir.

Atop the Mangala dam at half past seven in the morning 

Nothing stirred as we lined up on the dam. The kill had obviously been dragged into the bushes and the tiger would be sleeping on a full belly.

The small pool of water was mirroring the mood of the skies on its glassy surface. It looked cold and uninviting. No tiger would want to soak itself today morning. The sun was probably debating whether to wake up or sleep on! 

Few of the other vehicles went down into the reservoir hoping to drive out the tiger from its hiding.

It seemed the herd of chital were amused by the arrival of the vehicle. They knew that a well fed predator was no threat to them and it would not be disturbed by its arrival.

After a while we were wondering why we were wasting our time waiting for the tiger which, obviously, was in no mood to oblige. Others were there much earlier than us and had not seen any movement.

For a brief moment we were all woken up from our thoughts by the excited chitals that suddenly started rushing off away from the edge of the water.

Something had spooked them they had bolted in panic.

Then just as quickly they settled down to graze again. Luck was not with us this cold morning. It was turning out to be a pointless waste of time.

Eventually we moved away too. It was bitterly cold and only a very hungry tiger or leopard would step out to hunt on this unpleasant morning. The morning trip never looked like it was going to throw up any excitement. After a futile two and a half hours, during which the only animals we encountered were a pair of stripe neck mongoose we returned to pack our bags.

This was my first trip into the wilderness after having laid my hands on the E-M1. It is the continuation of my previous post in part.  Not too many opportunities presented themselves but on the few occasion I could use it, it was exemplary. The body of the E-M1 has now replaced the E3 on the 300mm f2.8. 

It looks so tiny when compared to the E3 so I've got myself the HLD-7 battery grip for making her presence more obvious! My EC-20 2x teleconvertor, the one that is coma, has yet to return from her rejuvenation trip to Singapore. I was therefore dependent on the digital 2x convertor on the camera. 

The few shots of birds that I got have left me suitably impressed. It looks like this combination will be my birding gear for the foreseeable future. The 5-axis in body stabilization kicks in whenever you feel your hands swaying with the nearly 4 kilos I have to lift and handhold. 

All the following pictures are uncropped, tweaked a bit for light and resized. (Click on pictures to enlarge)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 300mm (Aperture priority, f4, 1/1250 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f4, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f4, 1/1000 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 300mm (Aperture priority, f4, 1/800 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f4, 1/800 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f5, 1/100 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f2.8, 1/2000 sec, ISO 500)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f2.8, 1/1600 sec, ISO 500)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f2.8, 1/800 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f2.8, 1/800 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f3.2, 1/2500 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f3.2, 1/2500 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f3.2, 1/2500 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f3.2, 1/800 sec, ISO 500)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 300mm (Aperture priority, f3.2, 1/500 sec, ISO 400)

OM-D E-M1 with 300mm f2.8 @ 600mm (Aperture priority, f3.2, 1/2000 sec, ISO 400)

It was a new toy I held in my hands and I'm yet to familiarize myself with the E-M1's nuances. There are more than a few differences and all the buttons have been shuffled around. It takes a bit of learning and with the E3 and E-M5 still fresh in my mind it will take another trip to get my fingers to move instinctively. 

I'm only wondering how it will behave when the EC-20 comes back. It had been a permanent attachment between the E3 and the 300mm f2,8. On the E-M1 it will have the MMF-3 adaptor between the body and the teleconvertor. On paper, it looks like a potential 1200mm but in the real world situation I wonder how the camera's focusing will be affected when targetting fast moving subjects. That is for later because I don't know when the TC will come back!

Meanwhile I'm looking forward to the next trip to Bandipur a couple of weeks from now. Will keep you posted on my experiences.