Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright
In the forest of the night.
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake

I am standing next to a giant stuffed tiger mounted on a pedestal and casting his frozen snarl toward a small group of people that have gathered. I contemplate the incredible irony of my situation. It is Friday morning, 4 A.M., and pitch dark outside. I stand in the anteroom of the former hunting lodge of the Maharaja of Jaipur, now the reception area of my hotel. On the walls are photographs of hunters atop elephants, and their "trophy" tigers spread on the ground in front.

The location is northern India, the scruffy little town of Suwai Madhopur, in the state of Rajasthan. I cannot remember when I have been this excited. I am about to fulfill my version of the "dream of a lifetime" and embark on a tiger safari. However, on this safari I will ride a jeep as well as an elephant, and, I will shoot with a camera instead of a gun. And my photographs will look very different from those currently on the walls. The tigers will be alive! My how things change. (Next photograph)