Jayanth Sharma

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Jayanth Sharma Seasoned Wildlife Photographer, Founder of Toehold. I help people go beyond travel and make it count 🥇
Sony Ambassador | Taught 15K Photographers 📸

I am a professional wildlife photographer and the CEO of Toehold.

19/09/2026

I keep highlighting this once in a while as it’s a FAQ

The countdown begins. In around 10 days, national parks across central and northern India opens its gates to welcome gue...
19/09/2026

The countdown begins. In around 10 days, national parks across central and northern India opens its gates to welcome guests on tiger trails. Bandhavgarh, Tadoba, Ranthambhore, Corbett, Panna, Pench, Kanha what is your favourite? Or what would you like to visit soon?

If we can serve you in any of these destinations please connect.

I recently visited a gentleman's house who gave my photo of the slot canyon national park a wonderful reception by hosti...
18/09/2026

I recently visited a gentleman's house who gave my photo of the slot canyon national park a wonderful reception by hosting it on his lavish apartment's living area. I think for anyone willing to make fine-art prints that decorates the walls of such places, please consider investing your time, efforts and money on making high-quality landscape photos.

Trust me the supply is very less and there's a reasonable demand still, unlike the supply of photos of Tiger's backsides where the demand is non-existent.

Samajhdaar ko ishara hi kaafi hai.

Resplendent Quetzals of
18/09/2026

Resplendent Quetzals of

Kabini and the Cost of Wildlife Tourism in KarnatakaKabini, part of Nagarahole National Park near Mysore, has always occ...
17/09/2026

Kabini and the Cost of Wildlife Tourism in Karnataka

Kabini, part of Nagarahole National Park near Mysore, has always occupied a special place in Karnataka's wildlife story. Its status goes back to the era of the British Raj and the Maharajas of Mysore, both of whom prized this landscape long before it became a tourist destination.

For decades, the annual elephant congregation was Kabini's signature spectacle. Over the last ten years, though, its reputation has shifted almost entirely to the Black Panther — a shift that brought stricter rules, a surge of photography enthusiasts, and a transformation of what was once an elephant gathering into a broader wildlife draw. Ironically, the panther itself hasn't been sighted in a good while now, even as its legend continues to define the destination.

The complaint I hear most often from prospective travellers is cost. A night in Kabini runs around ₹20,000 per person, and on top of that sits the forest department's camera fee — among the highest in the country. Fees scale with lens focal length: anything under 250mm is relatively affordable, a lens up to 500mm can run ₹1,000+GST per safari, and anything above 500mm climbs to ₹1,500+GST per safari.

Do the math for a couple spending two nights, one of them carrying a 600mm lens: â‚ą20,000 Ă— 4 = â‚ą80,000 for the stay, plus roughly â‚ą10,000 in camera fees alone. Travel expenses extra.

That's close to $1,000 for a weekend — comparable to what a Kenya safari costs for twelve hours a day in the bush. In Kabini, you get about five: two and a half hours in the morning, and the same in the evening. It's easy to see why people call it outrageous.

At Toehold, we've been bringing travellers to Kabini for seventeen years, and we're seeing it get harder every year to justify this experience to newcomers — even as more luxurious (and pricier) lodges keep opening around the reserve. For a large segment of travellers, the value simply doesn't add up anymore.
Some argue the forest department was never built to care about tourism, so friction is inevitable — and that's a fair point. The department's real mandate is habitat protection: poaching, encroachment, disease, soil erosion, all the unglamorous work that keeps these ecosystems alive. Fielding permission requests from photographers chasing bragging rights was probably never meant to be part of the job.

Which raises the real question: why doesn't India have a dedicated wildlife tourism body — one that works alongside the forest department without being wholly dependent on it? Countries that do this well seem to separate conservation management from visitor experience, letting each function operate with the right priorities. Karnataka, and India more broadly, might be overdue for the same.

Curious to hear how others see this — is a separate tourism authority the answer, or is there a better model for balancing conservation priorities with a sustainable tourism economy?

Toehold Experiences

Blue-yellow, Great Green, Scarlet, Hyacinth, Red and Green Macaws
17/09/2026

Blue-yellow, Great Green, Scarlet, Hyacinth, Red and Green Macaws

Stop deciding mono vs. colour by “does this look artistic.” That’s how you end up converting the wrong shots.Ask this in...
16/09/2026

Stop deciding mono vs. colour by “does this look artistic.” That’s how you end up converting the wrong shots.

Ask this instead: does colour add information here, or is it just in the way?

If the frame is about light, form or texture, backlit fur, a silhouette, fog rolling through the trees, colour is noise. Strip it away.

If colour IS the story, a kingfisher’s flash, breeding plumage, sunrise turning the grass to gold, it’s not decoration, it’s the subject. Keep it.

Save this one for your next edit session. Swipe through, then tell me: which side do you default to without thinking?

It's not been a very good year with rainfall overall, but still and are verdant. Due to the scale and nature of my w...
15/09/2026

It's not been a very good year with rainfall overall, but still and are verdant. Due to the scale and nature of my work, I hardly get to visit these lovely little parks just a few hours away. But for some of you who don't have the same problem as I do, I think one should visit either of these jungles at least once a quarter for a weekend.

Want to go to Kabini? Or Bandipur?
Join our Photo Tours in Oct-Nov-Dec and enjoy one of South India's better mammal paradises.

Which one comes first, comparing the shot or the moment it can’t afford to miss? Three cameras, three different jobs, an...
13/09/2026

Which one comes first, comparing the shot or the moment it can’t afford to miss? Three cameras, three different jobs, and the wrong question is “which one’s best.”

Swipe through for the honest breakdown: A1 II for speed you can’t predict, A7R VI for resolution you’ll crop into later, A7 V for everyone who’s never actually been limited by their gear.

I shoot the first two and still switch between them depending on what I’m chasing that day, not because either one wins outright.

Tell me in the comments what you shoot for and I’ll tell you which of these three I’d put in your bag.

SonyA7V Wildlife Photography CameraGear PhotographyTips Sony | Alpha (India)

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Toehold 15, 2 Floor, 18 Main, 4 T Block, Jayanagar
Bangalore
560041

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Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm

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