“We couldn’t find any tigers … so we came to photograph humans,” Mohan hefted his 300mm prime lens and the vendors all started laughing. One man tilted his head, smoothed out his blanket of garlic and began posing in earnest, forgetting the foot traffic for a moment.

I originally came to Kanha National Park to see Bengal tigers. It’s in India’s central highlands, in a region called Madhya Pradesh. Tigers aren’t so easy to spot (more on that later), but thanks to that fact, I’d end up having one of my favorite afternoons of my trip … working on my environmental portrait lessons and hanging out with my own species.

This Wednesday market happens once per week, just beyond the park boundary.