Nature Photo Magazine 2012/1

spring / 2012/1.

nature photo magazine

ÂŽ

online photo magazine

travel | wildlife | landscape | people-culture | test

spring photography | Tips and tricks canon 5d mark III | Field test Nikon d4 | Field test

NAGYRATÖRŐ VAGYOK NAGYRATÖRŐ VAGYOK

A NIKON D4 VAGYOK. Kiemelkedően érzékeny, 16,2 millió pixeles FX-formátumú CMOS szenzorral, akár 10 kép/mp-vel, valamint az ISO 50-204 800-zal ekvivalens kiterjeszthető érzékenységgel.

Mindezek mellé a kategória csúcsát jelentő 51 pontos autofókusz, 1080p D-videó 30, 25 vagy 24 kép/mp-vel és ethernet-csatlakozási lehetőség társul. Bármire kész vagyok. iamnikon.hu

A NIKON D4 VAGYOK. Kiemelkedően érzékeny, 16,2 millió pixeles FX-formátumú CMOS szenzorral, akár 10 kép/mp-vel, valamint

Welcome Dear Reader, We are the first to report on the field test of Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Nikon D4 in our 2012/1 spring issue.

The „Adventure Tour” column invites you to the wilderness of Africa where you can familiarize yourself with the excellent wildlife and birdlife of the world heritage site Lake Nakuru National Park through the pictures of Anikó Imre and Tamás Imre and their travel mates.

This time we made a field test of three different cameras. We received an exclusive priority from the two biggest camera producers, thus we could test the full-frame novelties of Canon EOS 5D Mark III thanks to Canon Hungary. We received the company’s brand new flagship from Nikon Ltd and we could test it for a week in numerous situations. The third participant of our field test was Canon’s Powershot 1 GX which we took for a trip to Venice for five days.

The „Tips and Tricks” column we encourage nature photographers for an exciting spring photography at starry nights and in blooming meadows with the guidance of László Suhayda and Árpád Krivánszky.

We welcome to our Portfolio column Zoltán Ritzel who has success in several Hungarian and international competition with his pictures.

In our „Life under Water” column photographer Dániel Selmeczi Dániel shows us the best five dive sites through his pictures.

We continue to present India in the „People-Cultures-Cities” column.

Now we were in the land of tigers. You can familiarize yourself with the wildlife of Indian wilderness and the people of the nearby villages through the pictures of Anikó Imre and Tamás Imre.

In our „Interesting places” series we reveal a photo opportunity near Budapest once again. Árpád Krivánszky’s pictures and text provide help and inspiration for the beauties of nature near the capital city.

Máté Bence shares a chapter “Where the Cranes Become Tame” from his book Invisible. Those who are interested in Bence’s writings now can learn the workshop secrets of the famous nature photographer.

Our website has been developed into a dynamic site so we can publish news, exhibitions and other important information much more frequently. Please visit us regularly at www.naturephotomagazine.com.

Please share your ideas on nature photography in our EYE OF NATURE website where photographers exchange pictures and opinions.

Please send your introductory material and photos to us: info@naturephotomagazine.com Receive our eleventh issue with love!

Photo: © Tamás Imre Canon EOS 7D, EF 200 mm f/2 L IS USM 1/320sec f/5,6 ISO 640

Tamás Imre Editor-in-Chief

Photo adventures

18 East Africa (Kenya)

Canon EOS 7D, EF 600mm f/4 L IS USM 1/1250sec f/5 ISO 400

field test - Canon 5D mark iii

6

My phone rang and I hear the voice of a good friend of mine telling me that the test version of Canon EOS 5D Mark III has arrived. I received the camera body soon thanks to Canon Hungaria. Testing the ISO sensitivity and the autofocus system was a priority too. Since I was primarily interested in a test in nature photography conditions, I took the camera to the Őrség National Park for a three-day test.

field test - Nikon D4

34

I would have not thought that we will test D4, Nikon’s cuttingedge DSLR camera in this issue. A colleague at Nikon Ltd informed us that the new camera body had arrived and ready to be tested. We got the camera to use for a week, so we had the chance to check it out in several different situations. Besides the camera body we also received a Nikkor f/2,8 70-200 mm VR, an f/2,8 400 mm and f/2,8 24 mm lenses. We threw ourselves into the testing process with my colleague János Szekeres who is a Nikon user.

Tips & tricks - spring photography 78

In spring, before forests come into leaf, in the nearness of a nicely structured tree at a clear night an opportunity arises to capture ’star trails’ photos. Today’s modern camera bodies at high ISO setting are suitable to capture still stars at relatively short exposure time (max. 20-30 sec). If you choose the other option in which stars draw bright trails around the centre of the Polestar as a result of the rotation of the earth, then it is worth shooting at a minimum of 20 minutes exposure time for the sake of the dynamism of the picture.

© Tamás Imre

life underwater - best dive sites 84

I have travelled to many places and dived in various seas and oceans of the world in the past ten years. I got to thinking during the last minutes of a fantastic dive on my latest trip about the most memorable dives and most lasting experiences of my life. The sites and countries began to run through my head: Costa Rica, Egypt, Sudan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa and lots of other unique and fascinating locations.

a glimpse at india - part III

92

India, Bandhavgarh National Park: spotted stags, monkeys, peacocks and other birds, top predator tigers, intact jungle – these are the characteristics of the wilderness of Middle India. In the third part of our series I guide you to the biggest tiger reserve of India where if the king of the beasts appears everyone becomes numbed with fear.

interesting places

buda mountains

44

Portfolio

Zoltán Ritzel

54

field test

canon powershot g1x

70

Field test

Canon 5d mark iii My phone rang and I hear the voice of a good friend of mine telling me that the test version of Canon EOS 5D Mark III has arrived. I received the camera body soon thanks to Canon Hungaria. Testing the ISO sensitivity and the autofocus system was a priority too. Since I was primarily interested in a test in nature photography conditions, I took the camera to the Ĺ?rsĂŠg National Park for a three-day test.

Appearance and control system The body is definitely professional, it cannot be purchased in every shop, only in the designated ones which sell Pro products. The body is very similar to the structure and button layout of EOS 7D but slightly refreshed. The magnification function has changed compared to the former Canon bodies. Control buttons were designed by Canon engineer’s the way you can manage them even in thin gloves safely, this is a real advantage in winter sports and nature photography.

The main control wheel can only be turned by pushing a top button at the same time so at last it can be avoided that the control turns while in the set bag. There is a new back button by which you can select the image style, multiple exposure and HDR images which opens further opportunities for the user.

The menu system has been fully renewed, forget Canon’s traditional menu list.

The usual things can be found in the Shoot 1 menu apart from the Mirror lockup which has been hidden in the C.Fn menu hitherto.

Those who do macro themes frequently or landscapes with big telephoto lenses can benefit from this option. There is nothing special in Shoot 2, but Shoot 3 menu offers several important functions such as the High ISO speed noise reduction and Long exposure noise reduction, or at the bottom of the list the Multiple exposure and the HDR mode. We can find the Live View functions in the Shoot 4 menu. The next one is a completely new menu list, the AF menu. Here we can set the AF system in five different submenu according to our subject or the desired speed. In AF1 graphical figures help the user to choose the right setting on case of moving subjects. We have opportunities here what we have never had before.

Canon 5D Mark III, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

1/320 sec f/4 ISO 400

Canon 5D Mark III, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

1/1600 sec f/3.5 ISO 400 Multiexposure

For instance the accelerate / decelerate setting or the setting for erratic subject moving quickly in any direction etc. Such menu system is the dream of many photographers. In the playback and set up modes we can find the usual stuff and C.Fn menu remained as the last one. I did not intend to list all, only the most important novelties and changes. I really liked the new system, and after a half an hour I managed it as if I had always used it before.

ISO sensitivity Perhaps this is the first question of every photographers. Those who knew that I was testing the camera kept ringing me at the weekend asking: what about the ISO sensitivity? The 5D Mark II was very good in this field. I chose a dress rehearsal for the test scene as usually there is so little light in contemporary performances that shooting is impossible without using high ISO sensitivity.

I started out with ISO 1600 straight away, no noise at all. It was if I shot at ISO 100. Well, then let’s go up to ISO 2000, ISO 2500. A little noise but perfect sharpness - that’s quite something, I have never seen like that before. I switched up to ISO 3200, there was a little noise but not too much. ISO 6400, here there is noise too but much less than at the camera’s predecessor.

ISO 12800, incredible, it is quite acceptable even there. This is already 2 LV more compared to the predecessor. ISO 25600 was quite noisy, but it was still acceptable for smaller prints.

Above that ISO rate was not satisfying for me.

Well, this is a tough one, another opportunity for capturing fast action. What is the limit for producers? A few years ago I was struggling with push slides at ISO 400 to make them good enough to be projected and now at ISO 6400 there is only insignificant noise. Come on people, now certain action photography themes can be reinterpreted again, and I’m glad because from now on other types of pictures can be taken.

Canon 5D Mark III, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

1/1000

0 sec f/4 ISO 400

Canon 5D Mark III, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

1/3200 sec f/4 ISO 400 Multiexposure

live in the field In the second phase of the test I studied the new multiple exposure and HDR functions. I took the body and my photo bag in which I put my two favourite lenses, a Canon EF 180 mm macro and a Canon EF 8-15 mm Fisheye. My partner and I and two of my friends went together to the Őrség National Park to photograph plants. We spent the first morning with field assessment and checking out the opportunities. Fast mode, HDR function on and I selected that I also want RAW format of every picture taken so I could process the pictures on my desktop later if I did not like those made on the spot. To my surprise Canon EOS 5 D Mark III can merge pictures taken in different light conditions very well. We can choose from several different HDR settings. In the submenu we can select the suitable dynamic range which can be automatic, ±1 LV, ±2 lV, ±3 LV, these refer to the exposure. Several HDR effects can also be selected such as natural, art standard,, art vivid, art bold, art embossed. I liked the natural effect the most as we could get photorealistic images checked on the display. I like the art standard image too but the rest was not photorealistic, they reminded me of HDR images frequently published on the Internet rather than a well-exposed nature photo.

It is interesting that the ready HDR image can only be saved in JPG format. I wondered a lot why, then I realised that it is logical as an original RAW HDR cannot exist thus the possibility of subsequent manipulation is excluded. I liked this function, especially that we can make photos of good dynamic range without subsequent processing. But be careful, always do it from a tripod to avoid any movement of the three images taken by the camera in quick succession.

Another important subject of the test was the multiple exposure. Tthe privilege Nikon’s highend cameras has been tilted in this field as from now this function is available for Canon users too. It provides opportunities to take lots of interesting nature photos and the final image can be saved in RAW format, naturally.

The camera is able to make a montage out of several picture even in RAW format, up to nine pictures exposed on each other.

1/500 sec f/22 ISO 200

1/60 sec f/22 ISO 200

We can select from the following settings in the menu: multiple exposure for one shot or continuous which is really good as you do not have to reset the camera at every multiple exposure again. The lightness factor of the images can be additive, average, bright and dark. Multiple exposure shots can be taken in both RAW and JPEG shooting modes, previously captured RAW images can be used as a starting point, and cumulative results can be observed and corrected in real time on the camera’s LCD screen. It is very exciting, so I started to photograph Dogtooth violet and other spring flowers. I took several multi-exposed pictures in different light conditions, you can see the result in the magazine. In my opinion this is an excellent and fantastic opportunity for nature or art photographers to extend their creativity. At last producers realised that it is completely different to make a creative photo on the spot and see the result immediately rather than sitting at home in front of an image processing software and manipulate our pictures subsequently. Nature photographers do not like the latter, we prefer making our pictures in the field in the given light conditions by multiple exposure if possible. Of course, we should not forget that a multi-exposed picture will be an original RAW image as we already got used to it in the slide image era.

summary

HDR

A Canon EOS 5D Mark III is a brilliant, professional DSLR camera. Its predecessor was an extremely good body too, but it is the first time that it can be recommended for action nature photography. This camera can actually be recommended for any nature photography theme, it can produce excellent quality highresolution pictures equally in landscape, macro, bird or mammal photography. Its price is around HUF 1 million which is not a small one, but it has much more features than any Canon camera on the market so far.

The camera bodies were provided by Canon Hungary, thank you for that!

Text and images: TamĂĄs Imre 1/8 sec f/22 ISO 200

Photo adventures

East Africa (Kenya)

Kenya, Africa. This is the place on Earth which is known by everyone or at least everyone heard about it. It is understandable as nature film channels usually prioritize films shot in the African wilderness.

In the following series we invite our readers to the most famous national parks of Africa. First we visited the Lake Nakuru National Park which was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999.

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, EF 24-70mm f/2,8 L USM 1/30sec f/7.1 ISO 400

Lake Nakuru National Park Our series of articles guide you to the wilderness of East Africa. Through this expedition we would like to present the magical atmosphere of Kenya. It is worth traveling to here in any time of the year, although the best time to go is from July to September or from February to March.

The main destinations of our expedition were the Lake Nakuru National Park and the Masai Mara Reserve which will be presented in the next part of this series. Our aim was to discover this incredibly exciting wilderness. During our shooting we tried to cooperate with the authorities to avoid any inconveniences.

It is worth knowing for every photographer that getting off the roads arbitrarily is forbidden, getting out of the jeeps and disturbing animals in their daily activities is prohibited and life-threatening. Those who breach these rules can expect heavy fines from the rangers.

Our group rented three Land Rovers for the journey with three drivers and an armed guide to protect us from conflicts with animals our tourist buses. We set off the adventure with great hopes.

Your equipment should be selected the way you can carry it with you in any circumstances.

Tips for the flight can be read in my previous articles about Tanzania, in the 2010/1 issue.

Lake Nakuru National Park has the most beautiful and most varied birdlife in Kenya. About 300,000 Greater Flamingoes and Lesser Flamingoes can stay in the lake at the same time and eat more than 100 tons of algae a day. These birds eat the blue-greenish Spirulina algae which rich in phosphorus and salt and develops in shallow lakes.

Canon EOS 7D, EF 600mm f/4 L IS USM + EF 1.4x 1/800 sec f/6.3 ISO 400

Video: © Pál Teravágimov

Canon EOS 7D, EF 600mm f/4 L IS USM 1/15 sec f/25 ISO 640

Canon EOS 7D, EF 600mm f/4 L IS USM 1/3200 sec f/4 ISO 400

Canon EOS 7D, EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM 1/3200 sec f/4 ISO 400

This kind of food can only be utilized by flamingoes so it is not rare to see them in groups of millions by salt lakes. It is a sublime view to see these strident flocks of birds and photograph them at dawn or in the twilight.

Besides Lesser Flamingoes we can photograph lots of other subjects in the national park such as lions, zebras, African buffalos and rhinoceros, and we can meet a good number of pelicans too. As for the latter, we can get out of the jeeps to photography them but only at a designated place, if you want more you have to ask for permission.

On the first day of our trip we were at the spot before sunrise. We had the luck to find the pelicans in the course of their morning bathing. First our armed guide looked around then waved us as a sign of permission for getting out of the car and photograph. Well, here the tripods we had taken with us came in handy as in the dawn light, especially when using bigger telephoto lens, a stable tripod is a must. European photographers are not accustomed to the fact that birds here tolerate human presence so close. The birds flew undisturbed in the rays of the rising sun providing nice photo themes to my mates and us.

It is worth shooting from different perspectives, very interesting pictures can be taken even with cameras placed on the ground (bean bags come in handy in this case).

Shutter speed is not the most ideal that early, before 6 am, so we did panning shots either with higher ISO sensitivity or with shutter speed priority.

We did not even notice the passing time as we had been standing by the lake for an hour and a half. Tourist arrived at the national park too and the lights began to become harder.

© Pál Teravágimov Canon EOS 50D, EF 300mm f/2,8 L IS USM 1/500 sec f/4 ISO 200

© Gábor Lukács Nikon D3, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR 1/500 sec f/5.6 ISO 800

© Zoltán Laki Canon EOS 7D, EF 500mm f/4 L IS USM 1/2500 sec f/5.6 ISO 400

© László Somosi Nikon D700, Nikkor 200-400mm f/4 VR 1/400 sec f/8 ISO 800

© Péter Tellér Nikon D300S, Nikkor 600mm f/4 VR 1/1600 sec f/4 ISO 500

© László Gelesz Canon EOS 7D, Sigma EX 300-800mm f/5.6 HSM 1/400 sec f/5.6 ISO 160

© Péter Zala Nikon D3S, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR 1/640 sec f/8 ISO 500

Canon EOS 7D, EF 600mm f/4 L IS USM 1/250 sec f/5 ISO 640 Our guide advised us to watch Lake Nakuru from a bird’s- eye view, so we climbed up to a 400-meter high viewpoint. We encountered buffalos and pelicans on our way up. The latter just arrived to have some food at the northeastern part of the lake where we could photograph their fantastic flights.

Arriving at the viewpoint rock hyraxes provided some photo themes and pelicans and flamingoes could be photographed from above, presenting us with pictures of the composition and form category.

It was a fascinating experience to photograph the wildlife of Nakuru from that close and from a distance. We spent three beautiful days in this paradise.

To be continued.

Text: Tamás Imre Images: Anikó Imre and Tamás Imre photographers

Planning Destination: East Africa, Kenya.

Accessibility: From Nairobi (Kenya) Airport.

What to photograph: birds, mammals, reptiles and landscapes.

What to take with us: wide-angle lens, minimum 300 mm telephoto lens with 1,4x teleconverter if possible; tripod; ND graduated filter; memory cards and batteries as much as possible.

Accommodation: In Kenya you can select from hotels of different categories according to your needs.

The best time to go: from July to September and from February to May, but you can photograph nice themes throughout the year.

Canon EOS 7D, EF 600mm f/4 L IS USM 1/3200 sec f/4 ISO 400

0

Field test Nikon d4

I would have not thought that we will test D4, Nikon’s cutting-edge DSLR camera in this issue. A colleague at Nikon Ltd informed us that the new camera body had arrived and ready to be tested. We got the camera to use for a week, so we had the chance to check it out in several different situations.

Besides the camera body we also received a Nikkor f/2,8 70-200 mm VR, an f/2,8 400 mm and f/2,8 24 mm lenses. We threw ourselves into the testing process with my colleague János Szekeres who is a Nikon user.

Technological novelties The soul of Nikon D4 is a 16.2-millionpixel Nikon FX format sensor. This is a very important innovation in the history of the company as there has not been such high resolution full frame sensor at such high speed in Nikon’s palette so far. The extremely fast data processing can achieve a speed of 10-11 picture/sec. In the box of the camera body we got 32 GB capacity Sony XQD memory card and a Sony card reader as well. Nikon”s representative told us that such speed could be achieved with the usage of Sony memory cards. Of course, the fastest SanDisk cards are also able to exploit the potential of the camera.

In the continuous high speed mode you can expose even hundred RAW pictures sequentially. That’s quite something, this way I guess it will be hard to miss any event.

For this speed the improvement of the shutter was crucial, so you can put even 400,000 exposure to the camera without any breakdown. The body is recommended for professionals, so the weatherproof magnesium alloy frame was designed to be a bit more lighter on the drawing board.

The first obvious change is the elimination of the auto focus switches which hitherto used to be at the back right side. A new button was built in to AF-M switch applied at Nikon D7000, so it can be selected at once which focus options are preferred by us: automatic, one, nine, twenty-one, fifty-one points or 3D.

Nikon D4, Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8

1/4000 sec f/5 ISO 1600

Nikon D4, Nikkor 14-24 mm f/2.8

30 sec f/2.8 ISO 1250

At this switch we can also select from AF-S and AF-C controls. To select focus points quickly and comfortably two extra joysticks and two AF-ON switches were built in. We found them very useful and used them frequently during the test to take sharp pictures. Lighting buttons are also a novelty, we took advantage of them twice during the testing, in the bird photography hide tent and during night photography.

the test We challenged the camera in several situations.

I met my colleague Jรกnos Szekeres on the second day at 5 am. We travelled to the DunaIpoly National Park for bird photography from a hide tent. It partly successful as early spring is not the busiest period for birds, perhaps a month later it will be better. However, there were one or two actions in the morning backlight, small songbirds landed on the feeder. I our experience for backlit subjects the one focus point selection is the most optimal.

Therefore we used that and it produced the most sharp pictures in burst mode.

I set sensitivity up to ISO 2000-3200 just for trial, while my friend Jรกnos could not take shots with his Nikon D2x as he had not had enough shutter speed for sharp pictures. As early morning lights passed the small birds gave up visiting the feeder and the hide so we left thinking about any further good test opportunities.

On the next day o the test period Jรกnos took the camera for a night star photography near Esztergom and showed me the results the day after. Seeing the pictures we agreed to meet the next evening at Herceghalom to find a lonely tree for the ISO test. And so it happened.

We met at 6 pm and after a short driving about we selected our subject and wait for the night sky. We had a little excitement as before dusk a smaller stripe of clouds came in but to our great luck later the sky became entirely clear.

For a correct ISO test I turned off both the long exposure noise reduction and the high ISO noise reduction. We took pictures within the range of ISO 400 - ISO 12,800. The results as follows: at ISO 100 - ISO 200 excellent.

Nikon D4, Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8

1/500 sec f/4 ISO 800

Nikon D4, Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8 1/4000 sec f/4.5 ISO 1600

Series of photos captured in half a second.

Nikon D4, Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8 1/3200 sec f/4.5 ISO 1600

Nikon D4, Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8 1/3200 sec f/4.5 ISO 1600

N 1

Nikon D4, Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8 1/3200 sec f/4.5 ISO 1600

ISO 400 - ISO 1600 fantastic, no noise at all, good quality. ISO 3200 - ISO 6400 still provided good quality but the noise came in, at ISO 12,800 it was very noisy, it was not suitable for the starry sky. But do not forget that we use the camera for nature photography and we wanted high-resolution, good quality prints. Naturally, for a low-resolution press photo even ISO 12,800 can produce excellent results. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that over ISO 1600 we have barely had the chance for good quality night sky photography so far. That’s why we checked out the camera this way. .

The next morning János Szekeres took the camera for an all-day landscape photography and was very satisfied with the quality of the images. When he gave the camera back to me he said that there was only one problem with Nikon D4: sadly it was not his.

I was curious whether the camera could meet a harder challenge in terms of AF and speed so on the last day I use it for lateral but backlit bird action photography. At dawn mallards can be found in the lake of the City Park (Városliget) of Budapest and I found them suitable for testing.

As spring was approaching the birds were very active in mating. I selected the AF-C track priority and the 3D main focus point priority. In this case you select one focus point and need to focus on the subject and the camera will find the main subject according to the contrast ratio and if the subject moves it tracks the movement.

The duck was swimming in backlight and I started to shoot and I took 16 pictures until it flew up - none of these pictures were blurred! It is a very good result, the exposure lasted only for one and a half second. We have never achieved such a good result with Nikon camera so far, even with D3S. The stress is on the backlight as it is the hardest thing in auto focus. Action photography can be reinterpreted.

Summary: Nikon D4 is a fantastic highresolution FX-sensored DSLR with excellent ISO sensitivity. The improvement of the AF system, the lighting buttons and the incredible speed: these are the dreams of every Nikon user nature photographer. We recommend it to everybody who can afford to fulfill his dreams.

We would like to thank you for the long test opportunity to Nikon Ltd.

Testers: Tamás Imre and János Szekeres

Interesting places The Region of Szénások (Buda Mountains)

Nagykovácsi is probably the only one-way village in the region of Budapest, the only way to get there is the road through Hűvösvölgy. The village is surrounded by the lime peaks of the Buda Mountains, some of them higher than the János Hill (529 m). It is a pleasant environment in sense of landscapes, but its real value lies in the diverse flora as more than 50 protected plants can be found in the region.

Landscape values Nagykovácsi is situated at 380 m above sea level, so you do not have to walk up too much to reach the peak of Nagyszénás at 550 m. Along the way you walk by some flowery meadows. The peak stands out of the forest’s level offering an excellent panorama of the region. However, some visual intrusions spoil the natural sight such as the mining wall above Pilisborosjenő or the residential road network of a gated community has not yet been inhabited. The meadow of the peak is covered by masses of flowers from March to June in several waves which results in a beautiful overall visual effect with the surrounding mountains. From here you can have a view of the neighbouring forestcovered Kutya Hill which offers a nice view of the Zsámbék basin. If you go to the other direction following the main street of the village towards the already mentioned Kutya Hill, you will see the spring of the Ördögárok the left hand side. The willow-lined creek flows lazily and the willows offer a nice sight even when the buds of other types of trees are still asleep. The yellow-greenish young shoots looks nice on landscape photos. In April the muddy ground below the trees is decorated by the bright yellow tufts of marsh marigold. There are many flowering species of trees along the banks of the stream in the woody bushy area, even at the edge of the forest. They look nice in the lush green foliage of the spring forest. On the fringe of the village the creek is connected to a little lake which is the favourite breeding place for toads in March.

Flowers From early March, or recently from the middle of the month the flower season kicks off in the neighbouring mountains with the blooming of the Greater pasque flower (Pulsatilla grandis) and, almost the same time, the Pheasant’s eye (Adonis vernalis). At the same time, in the forests of the northern slopes blooms the Snowdrop, and tiny heads of the Viola and Primula emerge. The flood of pollinator insects sets off. The forest’s ground at some spots covered by the thick flower carpet of Corydalis cava. A series of flowers follow them in April such as the tall, yellow Doronicum, the Iris pumila and Iris humilis, the jolly blue Muscari neglectum, the Spring vetchling, the Isopyrum, the Yellow anemone, the bush-like Rose daphne and the Elder-flowered orchid.

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L 1/320 sec f/4,5 ISO 200

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L 1/15sec f/6,3 ISO 200

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L 1/30 sec f/5,6 ISO 100

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L 1/125 sec f/6,3 ISO 200

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L

1/160 sec f/3,5 ISO 200

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L

1/50 sec f/4 ISO 200

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L

1/200 sec f/4,5 ISO 200

Species of the Bellflower family open their calyces from April to the beginning of autumn. The fortissimo of flowering is in May, the number of blooming flowers is countless: the Common kidneyvetch, species of the Broomrape family and of the Orchid family, the White and Red helleborine, the Senecio, the Burning bush, the Orpine family, the Round-headed rampion, the Solomon’s seal, the Grass-leaved flag and God knows what else. Busy butterflies keep visiting the flowers.

Unfortunately the Yellow swallowtail and the Scarce swallowtail have become sparse, but among the nicer butterflies the transparent wing-tipped Apollos can be found in great numbers. June delight photographers with the blooming of the Quaking grass (Briza media), the Violet limodore, the Turk’s cap lily, the Hungarian iris, the Columbine, the Pyramidal orchid, the Anthericum ramosum and the Lesser butterfly-orchid. On the meadows Feather grass (Stipa) sways in the wind. As for the insect world, you can meet Longhorn beetles too, and at dusk stag beetles pass our ears flying cumbersome and with great noise. The birdlife is medium rich.

Buzzards circle in the sky, the deep voice of ravens can be heard in the distance.

Have nice lights!

Text and images: Árpád Krivánszky

Planning Accessibility: from Budapest through Hűvösvölgy and Adyliget to Nagykovácsi by car or by bus (number 63), then on foot along the designated paths What to shoot: primarily plants, butterflies, insects as well as landscape Best time to go: from mid-March to the end of June What to take with us: camera, wide-angle and telephoto lenses (fixed or zoom), macro lens (or lack of that an extension tube or close-up lens for the tele), tripod, remote release cord, reflectors, diffuser. Jól jöhet még: mineral water or soft drink, tick repellent.

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L 1/4000 sec f/2,8 ISO 100

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L 1/200 sec f/3,5 ISO 100

1/100 sec f/4,5 ISO 200

Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L 1/30 sec f/5 ISO 100

Zoltán Ritzel I encountered photography at the age of 15 when – as a high school student in Bonyhád – I joined the city’s photo club. At that time the storehouse of my cameras included Pajtás and Smena, Zenit, Praktika and Minolta.

In the beginning I liked photographing pretty girls and classmates, but the memories of my rural childhood soon drew me towards nature and social photography.

However, I did not say no to theatre and concert photography either.

I studied photography, and later, in 1990, I was hired by a regional daily as a press photographer. But soon I became a design editor, so photography had been scaled back a bit in those years. Of course, my love of nature remained the same and five years ago, thanks to the new chief editor’s negative criticism, and maybe by resentment or by ambition, I again participated in photography competitions.

And soon I won the first prize, a 10-megapixel DSLR camera in a competition, the topic was environmental protection. From that point lots of things has changed. I have become more active than ever.

Since then, I have won prizes in quite a few national and international competitions. Presently I work with a Canon EOS 7D in the region of my hometown, Bonyhád, and in the little region of the Geresd Hills, between Szekszárd and the Mecsek Mountains. I have no favorite themes or animals. I equally like macro, landscape, mammal or bird photography and also spiders, dragonflies or snails.

The point is to spot something strange or unique in the subject and my fingers start to itch immediately. At the beginning I only photographed during my walks or hiking (as I did not like to sit in one place for long) but by now I have tried out the hide tent method too, and I do not get bored even if I have to wait hours for the magic moment. And you can get used to early rising too (in moderation, of course).

Portfolio

Rain shelter

Lightb

broom

Solar

rium

Violin

n clef

Az

Silhou

uette

In the

e flow

Shin

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Morning in t

the meadow

Field test

Canon PowerShot G1X

Canon PowerShot G1 X, 1/400 sec f/5 ISO 100

I could take Canon’s PowerShot G1 X test camera in my hand thanks to Canon Hungary.

Before I took it for a test Camera Ltd (a Canon service) refreshed the software of the camera.

This camera is primarily made for travelling, so I tried it out on the Carnival of Venice.

Appearance G1 X a thoroughly professional compact camera and its heavy enough not to be shaken during exposure. Its performance far superior to its predecessors, it cannot be compared to the previous G series machines.

Its grip is much better and thanks to its metal casing it is sufficiently resistant to the rigours of the journey.

However, for extreme weather conditions and for underwater photography it is worth buying the WP-DC44 waterproof case which offers protection even until 40-meter depth and enables access to every basic camera functions.

Image quality and ISO sensitivity Canon PowerShot G1 X is a new generation compact camera which similarly to Canon EOS 600D make exposure possible with 6.3 times more pixels than its predecessors (G12). This excellent image quality so far could have been achieved only through DSLR cameras. These are all nice data, but the point is that the ISO sensitivity it can produce has been unimaginable hitherto.

Thanks to the new, fifth-generation Digic 5 processor it is the first compact camera which can provide an ISO range of 100 to 12,800.

Wow, that’s really something, I thought to myself.

I selected someone wearing a peacock-like mask in the Carnival of Venice and a captured him or her in the last rays of the sunset with ISO 800 sensitivity, I could use sufficient shutter speed to take a sharp picture. The result was amazing.

I could not find any noise even at 100 percent blow-up, both the peacock feathers and the dress appeared in such richness of details I have never

seen so far only in case of top-category DSLR cameras. The real ISO test was inside Murano glass workshop where so little light was available that I had to shoot at ISO 3200 to achieve the suitable exposure time and sharpness. Lo and behold, this was not that noisy as I would have thought at first. The camera filtered noises quite well, while we had been struggling for sharp pictures here with DSLR cameras.

I gained the following experiences during the test of ISO sensitivity. There is a tiny difference in quality between ISO 100 and ISO 400, some noise appears at ISO 800, but this is negligible.

The little noise which appears at ISO 1600 can be corrected by the Digital Photo Professional software if you set Luminance Noise Reduction to 04 you will get perfect pictures in good quality.

ISO 3200 and ISO 6400 can be used primarily for report or social photography. At such high ISO sensitivity noise reduction confuse the details but the image quality is good compared to the former compacts, we used to get such pictures at ISO 800 previously. Yes, it is a big jump in this category, the performance of the camera is better by 2 or 3 light

values in terms of ISO sensitivity compared to its predecessors. ISO 12800 is noisy but it can make acceptable pictures for smaller, 10x15 cm prints.

Carnival in Venice I tested G1 X in extreme conditions, I did not care about the fact that it was not a DSLR. I wanted to set conditions in which only a SLR camera has been able to cope so far. The results were very good, let’s see them now.

First I tried out the camera in higher ISO ranges.

Thanks to the larger sensor and the four times bigger stabilizer the camera performed well as I mentioned above. But I was also curious about the opportunities of a shallower depth of field which can be achieved thanks to the size of the sensor.

I have never ever seen such nice blurred backgrounds made by compact cameras, at f/2.8 and f/5.6 apertures the sharpness of the background and the subject can be well distinguished.

Canon PowerShot G1 X, 1/80 sec f/5 ISO 800

Canon PowerShot G1 X, 1/320 sec f/7.1 ISO 400

Canon PowerShot G1 X, 1/160 sec f/5 ISO 100

Thanks to the high quality lens, sharpness is perfect even at full aperture which has been the privilege of the L series cameras so far. To my greatest surprise, it was the first time I met with f/16 aperture option in this category, although it is understandable as thanks to the bigger sensor we can set it very finely what should be sharp or blurred in our picture.

As for the shutter speed, I was astonished when I set the camera in shutter speed preselection: 60 second was the longest exposure time, even DSLR cameras cannot achieve that! Come on, let’s check it out!

I photographed with long exposure times - up to 30 second - in an atmospheric Venetian island, Burano.

To be honest, I did it at ISO 100 sensitivity but I was very curious how would G1 X perform. The result was awesome! I could take nice and sharp pictures of excellent quality and rich in details. These pictures even suitable for blowup to 70x100 cm.

The last test was a TTL flashing. I take pictures with the little machine equipped with a Canon 580 EX II flash. The set looked rather strangely as the flash was bigger than the camera. But the body performed extremely well. I take shots in Av and Tv and M modes and it nicely brought the expected results

summary Canon PowerShot G1 X, 1/30 sec f/8 ISO 100

It was the first time I was tempted to buy a little machine like this as the numerous lenses and bodies can be uncomfortable and need so much space in the set bag.

Often there is more than enough to go on holiday or for a trip with a G1 X, you will not be disappointed in the quality of the images. It is also worth buying this camera for a second one for those who own a more professional DSLR body. And it is a must for beginners.

The camera body was provided

by Canon Hungary.

Text and images: TamĂĄs Imre Canon PowerShot G1 X, 1/100 sec f/8 ISO 400

© László Suhayda Canon EOS 40D, EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

1278 sec f/8 ISO 320

Tips and tricks Spring photography Star trails photos In spring, before forests come into leaf, in the nearness of a nicely structured tree at a clear night an opportunity arises to capture ’star trails’ photos. Today’s modern camera bodies at high ISO setting are suitable to capture still stars at relatively short exposure time (max. 20-30 sec). If you choose the other option in which stars draw bright trails around the centre of the Polestar as a result of the rotation of the earth, then it is worth shooting at a minimum of 20 minutes exposure time for the sake of the dynamism of the picture.

The proper result can also be achieved by the combination of several photos of shorter exposure, but it can be captured in one step by the usage of the noise reduction function. In the latter case do not be surprised if the camera spends just as much time with noise reduction as the exposure time was (in this case 21 minutes). These kinds of photos should be taken in moonless periods, at late night, in a place free of light pollution and it is worth praying that no plane or satellite cross the captured area of the sky.

If we take pictures with wide-angle lens, we will get real curves, while with telephoto lens the curves will be more and more straightened depending on the focal length. Both can be nice.

A windy early spring landscape

© László Suhayda Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye 1/500 sec f/11 ISO 500

© László Suhayda Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM 1/125 sec f/11 ISO 250

You can find nice photo themes even when you do not expect them. In the „sleeping” landscape after the thaw the surface of a large puddle was whipped up by the stormy wind like the waves of the sea. There was nice and bright light with deep blue sky. The usage of an extra wide-angle lens makes the picture more interesting, it makes this part of landscape as if it was an enormous area. In addition, the curve of the horizon makes a special effect. The contrasted, atmospheric picture is further enriched by the characteristic cloud, and by the colour opposition between the blue basic tone and the orange-yellow stripe of the withered reeds and other plants.

Spring Meadow Saffron One of the protected rarity of the early spring period is the pinkish-violet Spring Meadow Saffron with nice stripe pattern. However, its environment is very unfavourable because of the chaotic, colourless leftovers of the withered fauna of the previous year. One option to remedy this situation is to capture with shallowest depth of field possible making only the flower sharp and leaving its background blurred. But it not always brings the expected result.

Another option to shade it with an umbrella or any piece of clothing. If you do it properly, the environment of the flower will receive less light than the flower itself so the unwanted details will disappear in the underexposed environment highlighting the beauty and gracefulness of your flower.

To capture the richness of details of the petals an appropriate quality of light needed, neither too contrasted, nor too soft. If the light is too contrasted it will cast ugly, deep shades, while in too soft light the nice details will disappear. Either you wait for the suitable light, or create it by experiment with the application of a diffuser and a reflector. To capture the natural colour of the flower is also important. To do so you should use white or silver reflector as the other ones can badly distort the colour of the flower.

Pheasant’s eye – cut photo

© László Suhayda Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro 1/3200 sec f/5 ISO 400

The sight and the atmosphere sometimes require not to show the whole flower on the picture but only its details. Colour dynamics and fine colour contrast appear between the white-clouded blue sky and the fine inner structure of the golden-yellow Spring Meadow Saffron.

It is worth using a relatively shallow depth of field to achieve the soft, romantic effect, however, one stripe or group of the stamina should be captured sharply so the viewer could hold on to something. Be careful as the shiny yellow petals can be overexposed easily, you have to wait for a suitable light or create it by diffuser and reflector.

Picture couple: a bunch of pulsatilla and its fruit This photo of a bunch of pulsatilla is a good example for that sometimes you have to break the rules. Sometimes we can take nice shots the way we do not use otherwise, for example from above. Plenty of flower were next to each other and the environment was so chaotic that a usual shot from ground level would not have been able to reflect the sight, so view from above was the only option. The withered grass and dry stalks were basically structured, only few of them had to be organised before exposure. Against the gray, radial, graphical effect of the background the bunch of flowers with its colourful pattern stands out with high contrast giving a mixed atmosphere of a colour / black and white photo.

The shot was taken with wide-angle lens to reach the suitable depth of field. I paid attention to the appropriate mass proportion (neither the bunch should be too small, nor too excessive) and the situation of the flowers in the picture.

It is worth visiting pulsatillas (may it be Pulsatilla grandis or Pulsatilla nigricans) a few weeks later as the flowers soon transform into little topknots during the fruit ripening period and you can take nice macro shots of these not fully ripened fruits. Nice colours and radial structure similar to their environment characterize these little knots and sometimes tiny insects can hide in them.

They look the best in medium soft, a little contrasted lighting.

© László Suhayda Canon EOS 5D Mark, II, MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo 1/250 sec f/ 3.5 ISO 400

© László Suhayda Canon EOS 5D Mark II, MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo 1/250 sec f/3,5 ISO 400

The special world of waterdrops After a spring rain it is worth turning our macro lens on the tiny things such as waterdrops. They hide a unique, little world if you bend over them close. You should take a special care to avoid motion blur in case of macro photos, it can be caused by the wind or a not properly stabilized tripod as well.

To capture the environment reflected it a waterdrop cloudy weather is required as bright, contrasted sunlight can cause sparkling which can spoil the sight. A relatively high depth of field is needed, and you should focus neither on the flower nor on the waterdrop but the reflection (manual focus). The high colour contrast of the petals and the stamina of the flower makes the picture more interesting.

© László Suhayda Canon EOS 5D Mark II, MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo 1/30 sec f/7,1 ISO 800

Common Frog Frogs have their breeding season in early spring, after the thaw. Common frogs live in the higher areas of the mountains. The landscape is often still spiced with snow patches and waters are covered with thin ice in mornings when the blue-throated males gather together and wait for the females. Frogs are cautious as they have lots of enemies, but by a calm, careful movement and with patience you can get quite close to them so you can take shots even with a 100-mm focal length macro lens.

However, it is worth using a telephoto lens of longer focal length and an extension tube to avoid disturbance and get a flatter visual angle. © László Suhayda Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM 1/500 sec f/8 ISO 800

The flatter angle makes possible to show the nice colour of the environment reflected on the surface.

A challenging theme as no use of taking pictures in bright sunlight due to the disturbing sparkles and in cloudy weather it is not easy to take sharp pictures because due to the continuous movement of the frogs the water waves. You should set just the required depth of field and the exposure time should be as short as possible. Small aperture helps to reduce the effect of the usually chaotic environment.

Colchicum hungaricum with its pollinator

© Árpád Krivánszky Canon EOS 30D, EF 80-200mm f/2.8 L 1/400 sec f/4 ISO 100

FOTÓOKTATÁS.HU

This basically white-coloured, protected flower which can be found in Hungary only in Szársomlyó of the Villány Hills is a lovely species of the Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean region. If the weather is good, some specimens can stick their heads out already in January but the blooming period lasts until March. Szársomlyó also called Devil-ploughed Hill because of repetitive series of limestone arches standing out of the ground. These flowers can be found here usually in unfavourable place in terms of photography, amidst high, withered tussocks. However, some of them situated more favourably, for example at the side or at the bottom of a little rock, standing out of ground level a bit. In that case we can take pictures of these white flowers against the background of the smiley, light-blue spring sky by placing the camera on the ground. It is quite rare that these flowers occur in large groups, so you have to exploit the opportunity if you find them. Bees and other pollutors are soon attracted to the quickly warming southern hillside in the sunshine.

With a short exposure time you can catch these diligent visitors in their flight. To blur the background wide aperture should be used.

Winter aconite bottom view It is possible to take interesting pictures of flowers from an unusual visual angle too. These Winter aconites grew on a little bump, so it was possible to capture them from bottom view with a camera placed on ground level. With a 50-mm macro lens and an extension tube I could almost get under the flowers. By a large aperture lens and with an almost open aperture and extension tube the habitat of the flowers could be shown blurred and patchy, along with the lines and colours of the surrounding trees and the bright sky.

Cloudy landscape with lonely tree

© László Suhayda Canon EOS 5D Mark II, EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro 1/80 sec f/3,2 ISO 200

Trees before they come into leaf offer a nice sight with their interesting structure of branches. However, they rarely stand alone and even if not in an environment which would make possible to create an airy composition placing them into a landscape. A solid colored blue sky is not the most suitable, but the nice, white clouded one which rich in details. Such weather conditions are rare, although relatively frequent in the early spring or late autumn. Such times sky-centered photos is worth taking in which the tree is only a starting point and the viewer’s eye can enjoy the decorative, cloudy sky and the furrows of the plowed field below or the long shades and the warm coloured patches of the withered fauna.

Cloudy landscape in black and white To show the beauty of the sky filled with migrating white clouds sometime a grayscale photo is more suitable than a colourful one. We can select the sky-centered solution in this case too, the topography of the land is used only for give a „support” to the sky. We can make it in black and white from the outset using a red photographic filter, or we can transform it to grayscale later and and then we can select the red filter option. The cloudless part of the sky barely contains red colour so it will look dark, almost black in the picture. On the contrary, white clouds are brightly illuminated as white includes every colour and has a significant content of red.

The red filter shows even the thin, subtle white mist in the sky. Make sure there are no burnt out areas on the original picture. Contrast increase is for enhancing tonal contrasts but it should be used carefully as you can lose details on the bright parts of the clouds if overcontrasted. Image processing softwares offer the option to modify the shades and lights. You can determine the light or dark tone range which you want to modify and can control the extent of the intervention.

© Árpád Krivánszky Canon EOS 30D, EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II 1/160 sec f/10 ISO 100

© Árpád Krivánszky Canon EOS 30D, EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II 1/200 sec f/10 ISO 100

Text and images: Árpád Krivánszky and László Suhayda

Malaysia

Life underwater

My favorite dive sites where I would travel again any time Costa Rica, Cocos: Alcyon Malaysia, Sipadan: Barracuda point French Polynesia, Fakarava: south pass Sudan, Shaab rumi: south platoue Indonesia, Raja Ampat: Manta point Bahama, Tiger beach Egypt, Elphinstone

Indonesia

Bahama

Sudan

Costa Rica

Fren

nch Polynesia

I have travelled to many places and dived in various seas and oceans of the world in the past ten years. I got to thinking during the last minutes of a fantastic dive on my latest trip about the most memorable dives and most lasting experiences of my life.

The sites and countries began to run through my head: Costa Rica, Egypt, Sudan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa and lots of other unique and fascinating locations. I am frequently asked during conversations where it is best to dive or what the best dive site are but I have never been able to fully answer these questions as each place is different. In general, every minute spent under water amazes and fascinates me. I am taken aback by the silence and beauty of the sea.

Every dive is made up of the spectacle of various marine life and indescribable shapes and colours, you just have to watch and wait and the sea will show itself. I could mention any visibility or a sandy, muddy slope seemingly devoid of life where after a few minutes of careful observation, millions of eyes would stare from the sand at the trained eye and suddenly, the dive site often described as dull, would come to life. I always think of the divers who constantly want to dive at new places.

Bahama

They just keep swimming as if wanting to overcome a great distance, only to complain at the end of the dive of not having seen anything when in actuality, they could have been witnesses to a biodiversity not found anywhere on land.

Sometimes I also just swim around and watch and only in the last minutes of the dive would a wonder present itself to me that I have never seen and this is what makes every dive exciting. So, based on this, I cannot really make any order of preference since any of the sites could be the best or the most interesting. I would rather it is a kind of a log book of the most memorable moments in the past ten years.

Egypt

Text and images: Dรกniel Selmeczi

© Anikó Imre - Forest impression

People-Cultures-Cities

A glance at India

On the land of tigers, Part III India, Bandhavgarh National Park: spotted stags, monkeys, peacocks and other birds, top predator tigers, intact jungle – these are the characteristics of the wilderness of Middle India. In the third part of our series I guide you to the biggest tiger reserve of India where if the king of the beasts appears everyone becomes numbed with fear. With its giant figure and graceful way of walking it reigns over Asia. Please follow me!

© Tamás Imre - Duel

© Tamás Imre - Langur

© Pál Teravágimov - Jeeps and the tige

er

Luck is needed As a continuation of the second part we boarded a plane in Varanasi and flew Khadzsuraraho. It was an exciting flight by Kingfisher Airlines. The plane was an old model from the 70s, last time I saw it in James Bond movies but that time Sean Connery was the protagonist. Apart from the local Indian people, only a backpacker French photographer traveled with us here. We arrived at the airport where there was nothing apart from a hangar and a reception hall.

Our guide was waiting for us holding two pieces of papers in his hand, one of them showed our names, of our French companion was written on the other. That’s how we became travel mates. We walked out of the airport and got into an old minibus and set off for the national park. Our Indian guide said that the trip will last for about 4 or 5 hours.

Temperature at this time in Middle India can rise above 50 °C, at least in the bus it was about 60 degrees. We asked the driver to switch on the air conditioner. Well, that was the point when the more interesting part of our journey started. We traveled through desolate places in the boiling hot and the air conditioner could only lower the temperature by 15 degrees.

We were very hot and after about two hours the machine started to leak water on the driver’s head, he got about half a liter at every turn. Jesus, I thought, it’s very funny but we must not laugh at him.

We were watching with poker face expecting the worst, when we stopped in a small village where they baked the Indian naan bread by the road. I would have a lunch here, our driver said, and we should do the same. The hot plate on which the bread was fried was so dirty that a European man probably would not eat from that bread made on it. Interestingly, none of us was hungry but we bought some soft drinks from the fridge. We could continue our trip after an hour wait, while the driver was having his lunch comfortably. We were traveling for about five hours when finally asked how much time is left to arrive. About two hours, he said, but sadly he said the same two hours ago too.

We would have traveled nicely but the minibus suddenly stalled.

© Tamás Imre - Rush

© Pál Teravágimov - Tiger having a wash

© Tamás Imre - Langur portrait

© Tamás Imre - Nuptial dance

The driver tried to restart it but could not manage to. We were standing there in the middle of nowhere in 50 °C heat for about twenty minutes when the driver started to swear and took a bottle of water and slammed the door and left us.

What would happen now, we kept asking each other, as we are here in a minibus in a desolate road of Middle India and there is not a soul. We had only seen eight or ten cars so far during the trip. About a half an hour passed when we spotted our driver again still swearing and throwing the bottle on the ground.

For our luck a boy about 15 years old came and helped to restart the engine. He poked something in the engine and finally, after the twentieth attempt, it restarted. With three hours delay, after an eight-hour-trip and ordeal we had arrived at the national park. The tiger reserve is strictly guarded by Indian rangers, we saw armed guards everywhere and they checked our passports just like at a border checkpoint. After a few minutes we arrived at out hotel which was very close to the national park. We set off before sunrise with great expectations to our first day. We were provided with a small open roof jeep and a driver.

At the main gate of the national park, still in the dark, a big flock of jeeps were waiting, about thirty cars packed with photographers.

Our driver went to the central building of the rangers where something was distributed to the drivers. Soon he came back with an armed ranger and we entered through the main gate and at a junction the thirty jeeps went to different directions. Our guide told us that according to the rule every morning it decided by a draw who can go on which way. There are signs at the junctions, e.g. A-D or D-C etc.

Š Tamås Imre - Hawk

© Tamás Imre - Escaping langur

Š Tamås Imre - Female tiger with cub

There are several junctions and the area of the national park is 625 square kilometer, so the jeeps often even do not meet, we just drive through the wilderness in search of the desired tigers. During the tour you have to follow your sign, it is not allowed to leave the road or turn back. The jeeps are controlled and you get different ranger every day to avoid corruption.

For photographers who accustomed to African safaris, wildlife is a bit sparse in India. There was a day when we were out in the field at six in the morning and we could not see a single animal until ten. However, no reason to despair, we photographed snake eagles, chital deer, peacocks, langurs and by a stroke of luck a tiger too. Do not take it granted that you will photograph a tiger

in India. You may see one, but you have only 20 percent chance to photograph it. We were among the lucky ones as we had at least seen two tigers on the first day. In the evening at dinner we talked to our French mate who complained to us that he even had not seen a single animal. We cut out storytelling short as we were sorry for him. In the morning of the second day we came across a nice

tigress, unfortunately it was single-eyed due to territorial debates. Then in the evening, in nice sunset lights two chital males started to fight about 20 meters distance for about half an hour quite aggressively. An account of experiences in the evening again, but the French photographer still had not seen a tiger, only deer and langurs, so we did not mention ours.

© Tamás Imre - Family in exile from their village

© Anikó Imre - Moment of joy

© Tamás Imre - On the way home after work

© Tamás Imre - Old lady from the village

© Tamás Imre - Little boy from the village

© Pál Teravágimov - Cows in Mala village

© Pál Teravágimov - Siesta

© Pál Teravágimov - Women reaping

© Tamás Imre - Girl bathing at the well

We really lucked out on the third day.

We heard shrill voices in the jungle, monkeys were shrieking too. A ten-years-old, nice tiger appeared and gracefully walked in the dense forest. In this cases they used to call the elephant drivers, if they are close, and the braver ones can get into the dense forest, closer to the tiger.

We were queuing with our car and when it was our turn, the elephant stood by the jeep. We climbed up to a quite instable seat, and we set off for the wilderness and after a few minutes of elephant walk we spotted the tiger: it was resting under a tree in a dry riverbed. To our surprise the elephant driver took us very close and he even made the elephant kneel down, so we could take nice pictures from 10 meters with 300 mm telephoto lenses. The big cat washed himself nicely and lay down to sleep. We had a big luck as we arrived before the tiger lay down, those who came later could only see the sleeping animal.

In the evening we asked only one question from the Frenchman: Any tiger? He did not see any, he said. We did not tell our story...

On the fourth day we did not have a safari, so we asked our guide to take us to the nearby villages to photograph.

The locals warmly welcomed us and said that sometimes there was some trouble with the tigers as they came in the villages and seize cows and rarely children. We were surprised that even in the 21st century tiger attacks still can occur.

Most of the women and children were at home, they showed us how they lived, how they wash up and worked on the fields. It was a pleasant surprise that everyone let us in their farms and we could photograph.

In the morning of the last day we went out in search of tigers again and we found two young siblings in the bush. We had to say goodbye to the Indian wilderness with an aching heart.

We continued our journeys by plane, then we got on a train but that is another story.

To be continued!

Text: Tamรกs Imre

editorial Editor in Chief : Tamás Imre Tamás Imre

Anikó Imre

János Szekeres

Béla Szabó

Árpád Krivánszky

László Suhayda

Adrien Imre

Iván Éder

tamas.imre@naturephotomagazine.com

Editors: Anikó Imre

Árpád Krivánszky

Béla Szabó

János Szekeres László Suhayda Associate Editors: Adrien Imre

Ágnes Kiss

Bence Máté

Dániel Selmeczi Iván Éder Martin Perhiniak Copy Editor:

Árpád Krivánszky Art Director: Anikó Imre Graphical Design: Martin Perhiniak Web Design:

FX designport Web Product: Thomas Picture Translators: Péter Pál Tóth Advertising: Anikó Imre aniko.imre@naturephotomagazine.com

Nature Photo Magazine www.naturephotomagazine.com info@naturephotomagazine.com Publisher: Thomas Picture Publisher Ltd. Address: Hungary

Bence Máté

Ágnes Kiss

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All rights reserved © 2012 Thomas Picture Publisher Ltd. The Nature Photo Magazine assumes no responsibility for solicited or unsolicited contributions and materials.

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