Prince of Bijrani

[Debasis Bose]

It was cloudy evening of 18th Dec 2016 and time was about 4.45 pm...dusk was setting in, we were trying to track the famous tigress of Bijrani, by the fresh pug marks on the soft mud, some call her Sharmilee. When we heard Sambar deer call floating from quite a distance. Our guide/naturalist, one of the most experienced and knowledgeable in tracking tigers, whispered, to reach the spot we have to drive about two km or more, he said let us give a try to the lead provided by the sambar call, it may take few minutes but worth a try. I agreed, then, heard him saying to the driver, head towards water hole number 6 / 7 and the choti fire line. By the time we reached and took a turn on the bend, we saw the fine dust still sliding from pointed cones of the fresh pug mark. As I looked in the direction of the pug marks leading to.....I was totally awe stricken....there he was, standing still and looking at us.

Nikon D4s, Nikon 300 F8, ISO 22800 (very low light), 1/320s

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This image again appears to be resized. Can you please mail me the image. Let me see why it is getting resized.

[Debasis Bose]

Dear Sabyasachi, Have mailed you the original 8.57 Mb jpg image.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Converted and posting a bit higher sized image. I didn't notice that the image was clicked in 22800 ISO. So there is lot of grains. May be you could have reduced the aperture from f8 to f4 and used a lower ISO.

[Debasis Bose]

Dear Sabyasachi, Thank you for reposting the large size image. I rechecked on my camera as well as the properties ISO speed is 22807 to be precise. Corbett @ 4.45 pm on a cloudy day on the shadow of the hills with dense growth can be called dark by many, and I clearly recall to jack up my ISO to 22800, to get the shutter speed for hand held shot, I tried to increase the aperture but then the focus was not locking on the tiger, so without wasting time I jacked the ISO. Please recheck the properties and you will see the ISO. Regards

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Dear Debasis,
I meant to say that initially when I was commenting, I hadn't seen that you had mentioned that the shot was clicked in ISO 22800. I saw it in the image properties so mentioned that the amount of noise is high due to the high iso used. So I had commented that the aperture could have been reduced from f8 to say f4 to reduce the ISO.

Here while analysing the images we visualise on the ideal way of shooting. At times in the field, it is a mad rush to change different settings and get the desired shot. So not always we can get it right. Nevertheless by analysing our mind becomes conditioned and our subconscious mind starts prodding us to change the settings.

And by the way, as a human I also make mistakes. I remember all the mistakes that I have made since my initial days of photography.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi