It’s 4:30am and my alarm is about to go off. I am wide awake partly due to jet lag, but mostly because of the excitement of what is to come. I get up, grab my camera, and head down to meet our group of eager photographers for some coffee and cookies. We are deep in the forests of central India and with a goal of photographing one of the most beautiful and iconic animals on earth: the Bengal tiger.

The tiger is an animal that is everywhere in our culture. From professional sports teams to movies and entertainment, the tiger holds an undeniable spot in our collective minds. In the wild, however, tigers are much more rare and have been endangered for many decades. Their historic range across India and across Southwest Asia has declined an estimated 95%. This has led to more human-wildlife conflicts as the competition for space increases. In India, the number of wild tigers drastically declined in the 20th century. It is estimated that around 1900, there were about 100,000 wild tigers with that population dropping all the way to a low of approximately 1,411 individuals.

These alarmingly low numbers spurred many conservation efforts aimed at protecting India’s national animal. India has been proactive about creating tiger reserves across the country providing areas for tigers to flourish. The efforts have been successful as the most recent surveys have all shown a significant growth in tiger populations. Current estimations have India’s population at approximately 3,600 individuals (about 75% of the world’s total population) and climbing. While this is great news, it also puts into perspective how few tigers are left in the wild today.

Our group convened in Delhi, having come together from all over the United States with the hope of catching a glimpse of a tiger in the wild. We knew it would be a challenge. Even though India has the largest wild tiger population in the world, they still are an elusive cat to find and photograph. This trip, however, was designed to give us the best possible opportunities to not only see tigers but also to photograph them. Our itinerary had us visiting two separate tiger reserves: Bandhavgarh National Park and Kanha National Park. These parks boast some of the densest populations of tigers anywhere on earth making them the perfect place for some wildlife photography.

After finishing our coffee, we loaded up the jeeps for our first game drive in Bandhavgarh. As we crept through the jungle, slowly bumping along the dirt road, the forest was alive in the predawn light. Birds calling, monkeys darting across the road, the crunch of leaves as a herd of Samba deer walked through the forest. It was clear that this was an environment teeming with wildlife.

As we worked our way through the park, suddenly our driver and naturalist exchanged a glance and pointed ahead. They had heard an alarm call from a langur monkey way off in the distance. We would come to know these alarm calls well as they were the best way to identify the location of a moving tiger. We raced ahead and when we came around the corner there were a few other jeeps already on the scene. Soon most of the vehicles in the area had heard the call. We couldn’t see anything, and it seemed like it was a whole lot of fuss for nothing. Still we waited, quietly scanning the forest. Suddenly we saw it: the distinctive orange and black stripes moving through the brush. The excitement was palpable as we watched the tiger appear and disappear through windows in the forest, eventually crossing the road in front of our jeeps.

We all agreed there is nothing quite like seeing a tiger in the wild. The sheer size and beauty is something to marvel at. The way they carry themselves, almost like royalty strolling through the forest amazed us.

As the days went on we settled into the rhythm of the forest. Our drives were always productive, sometimes they were tiger heavy, other drives were focused on the always charismatic langur monkeys. One drive we saw at least 3 or 4 brown fish owls in a row! At night we would settle in for a delicious Indian dinner at our luxurious safari lodges.

In Bandhavgarh we were very successful in our tiger sightings. We had about one good tiger encounter a day and those sightings had produced many nice images for our group. As we made our way to Kanha National Park, we felt as though we had already succeeded in our goal and anything more was just icing on the cake.

Kanha is a very beautiful park with large open fields of grasslands, reminiscent of the landscape of Botswana. We quickly picked up where we left off in Bandhavgarh, racing around the park listening for alarm calls, watching for tracks, and photographing whatever presented itself. Within the first morning drive, we lucked out and had a young tigress walk out of the forest and in front of each of our jeeps! We were on cloud nine that day at lunch.

The next day we had an all-day permit for the park. This allowed us to enter early and stay through lunch (the park usually closes, and all vehicles must leave and re-enter for the afternoon drive). We made our way into a known tiger’s territory, carefully checking for prints and listening for alarm calls. We were hot on the trail of a tiger, when one of our guests quickly and frantically let us know, we had just passed a cat. The driver slammed on the brakes and sure enough behind us was a leopard was standing on the side of the road looking back at us. We fired off a few frames before it jumped over a log, darted across the road, and disappeared into the forest. The whole encounter lasted 20 seconds. What a start to the day!

Up until this point, all of our tiger sightings had been relatively short. A tiger crossing the road or snaking through the forest only providing a glimpse here or there. Don’t get me wrong, we were grateful and had made the most of all our opportunities, but I was still hopeful we could get a longer, slower sighting before we left. It would turn out that we didn’t have to wait long for this opportunity!

Following an alarm call, we zeroed in on a tiger far off in the forest with a kill. Soon we saw there was a second tiger and we were looking at a pair of sub adult siblings. There were many jeeps, but a lot of them lost interest and moved on since the cats were bedded down deep in the forest. We stayed the course, and sure enough, eventually they got up and began moving in our direction. The jeeps split like the red sea, creating an opening for the tigers to come out onto the road. Right on cue, a tiger walked out and laid down on the side of the road. “Finally”, I muttered to myself, just happy to have a tiger slow down in front of us. As soon as I got the camera to my eye, a second tiger walked out of the forest! I could hear the faint sound of shutters flying across the jeeps. A second later, I heard a gasp from a nearby jeep, I took my eye away from the viewfinder as a third tiger emerged from the brush. This was the mother of the two siblings, who we didn’t realize was with them. We were overjoyed to have three beautiful tigers laying on the road right next to us! The sighting lasted for close to thirty minutes as they lounged, groomed themselves, and got up and walked down the road. We couldn’t believe our luck and I can safely say that we all got some great photos from this encounter.

As we wrapped up our time in the forest and began the long journey back to Delhi, it was hard not to contemplate how fortunate we had been. We had seen and photographed so much. Our luck with tigers was as good as you could have hoped for. We had come for tigers, but the forest provided so much more. It was a great adventure. As always, we are grateful to those that came and I cannot wait for the next one.