Fuji Safari Park

[AP*, f2.8, 1/1250, 200m ]

Yesterday I made it to the Fuji safari park along with Mahesh, Amit and Prasad Joshi. This park is somewhat unique for the very reason that it allows you enter in your own car to the proximity of the carnivores. It was a cloudy day and in the evening we were greeted by some rain. The safari park is situated at the foot of Mt Fuji. Once again clouds enveloped fuji-san and I was having a walk in the clouds all the way.

[AP*, f5.0, 1/125, 200m ]

The first section happens to be that of the bears, a bear entered the water and started having some fun. I just swung into action, started shooting, just when I am done I realized that I got two things wrong, the first was that I was shooting in JPEG only mode rather than RAW and secondly it was in Aperture Priority mode than the desired Shutter priority mode for such fast action. Of all the above image looked a bit acceptable.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/400, 160m ]

It was half past noon and guess the tigers were done with their lunch, hardly could find a tiger in the vicinity. At the very exit was this tiger.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/1600, 116m ]

There seemed to be a population explosion in the lions camp. The lioness out numbered the lions as usual. This very lioness/cub turned to be the animal of the day for me. I was staring right into my eyes, I was 10/15 feet from it when I took these shots.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/250, 200mm ]

Initially I used to wonder how come goats and pigs take center stage in a zoo/safari, well I dont have an answer let me put it this way "This is Japan, sometimes expect the unexpected". Not pretty sure but I presume this is a mountain goat.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/1600, 200mm ]

Some of you might be wondering how come safari in Japan. Well once a Japanese industrialist been to an african safari near Mt Kilimanjaro and was so pleased with it that he set up one right at the foot of Mt Fuji in 1980.

[AP*, f6.3, 1/250, 200mm ]




[AP*, f6.3, 1/250, 200mm ]

I was very thankful to Mr. Lion for posing upright. This being my first shoot of the wild though not in the wild, was quite an experience. Loads of lessons learnt. Guess every serious photographer should have a short checklist stuck right in his mind and breeze through it before the click. That sure will make a difference between a perfect shot and a near perfect shot.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/200, 200mm ]

This rihno seemed so bogged by it weight or by the unknown factor that it hardly lifted its head. Some how I found this snap very interesting.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/2000, 95mm ]



[AP*, f2.8, 1/800, 70mm ]

Locked with a medium telephoto lens , with the wide angle lens in the trunk and no option to get out of the car, left me to squeeze this to the best. The quadruped walk was the most graceful I seen in its class.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/1000, 200mm ]

This deer was quite far away and there was a fencing wire running at its nose level. I just wondered if this lens can blur that line to a desired extent and I guess it did a decent job.

[AP*, f6.3, 1/100, 190mm ]

I never liked cropping the images and this is one time I havent cropped on any of the images.

So over all its been a wonderful day with the camera but still its a long way for the perfect shot and mastering the art.

Camera : Nikon D70
Lens : Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR
Tripod : No tripod, all handheld.

*AP : Aperture Priority Mode