Category: Birds 'n Animals
On a visit to Chennai, when I was told by Sridhar and Mili that the best place to spot blackbucks was the IIT campus, I did not believe it! I have only myself to blame to reach there late on a cloudy day. What awaited me there was someting amazing ... herds of blackbucks and spotted deers, a mongoose and many birds, a sparring pair of stags, an albino male blackbuck and the opportunity to get so close to them without scaring them.
When I went to Maidanahalli a few months before (see 'Blackbucks @ Maidanahalli'), the blackbucks there were a scared bunch and ran away at the first sign of a human being approaching them. I guess, the measures adopted by the IIT authorities to protect the blackbucks have been very effective and also made them fearless and hardly bothered about the crowd. I waited for hours to get one of these guys to look at me with a raised head ... and they were least bothered and went on grazing!
The light was really bad and though I had a tripod, most of the shots were blurry due to their fast movement ... as they were shot at 1/8s ... etc.
The shot is with the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L telephoto lens, mounted on a Manfrotto 728B digi tripod. I used Av mode for this shot, with a -2 exposure compensation, f/5.6, ISO-800 for a 1/4s exposure.
I am defenitely visiting the IIT campus, earlier in the day, when I visit Chennai next time!
