Mirchani boy on the chase...!!!

Dear All,
Just back from a delightful trip to the Bandhavgarh National Park. This image is of one of the sub adult male cubs from the Mirchani tigress giving chase to a male sambhar in the Andhiari-Jhiria area.

EOS 7D + 500f4+ 1.4xII @ f8, 1/640, ISO 400, Handheld. Liked the image for how the tiger hugged the ground while running to reduce its profile to the prey. Couldn't accomodate the tail though, this is a full frame image, just chopped off some space from the top to complement the tigers linear profile.

Look forward to comments.

Cheers
Dipankar

Dipankar,
Lovely pose! Good that you were able to use the longer focal length to show the taut muscles and the stalking pose. One can see how carefully the tiger is moving its paw. Did it charge? Why handheld? Was this from the morning or afternoon safari? Overall I like it. Look forward to more from the series.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Very well done....the muscles of the tiger show the sheer strength! And that focussed look on the face is worth several views:) May be a slight sharpness boost..or maybe not!

tfs

Bhargava

Lovely pose captured. I liked the alert look and the raised paw. We had seen these mirchani cubs, but never saw this action, you are lucky :-). Did he make the kill? Look forward to more from Bandhavgarh. Thanks for sharing.

@ Sabyasachi, This was pretty late in the morning safari. This was a meadow with the obnoxious chainlink fencing in the Andhiari jhiria area. The tiger was outside the park area, resting beside a clump of bushes when the crashing sound of an approaching animal drew its attention.

From my level, i could only get the images through a haze of the fencing so i decided to haul all of my 80 Kgs up above the jeeps roof frame with the 500f4 in my hand. The precarious perch and the payload resulted in the obvious, handshake in most images.

Anyway, since we had observed the Tiger just a day before noisily crunching bones of a chital kill, I thought this would just result in a half serious effort.

I couldnt be more wrong, The tiger waited for the Large male sambhar to decend downhill so that its momentum could only take it forward, and approached from an oblique angle, knowing fully well that the fencing would cutoff a large part of the escape route. Predictably the sambhar dashed so close to the fence that I suspect its antlers got caught in the chainlink fence giving the Tiger enough time to latch on to the throat. It calmly strangulated the struggling Sambhar and then dragged it away into the thicket. For a young tiger, It seemed rather nicely done.

The next day it was a family reunion, The three cubs, the mother and even B2 were sprawled around after a hearty meal.

There were atleast 20 vehicles witness to this unique natural history moment.
I am not sure how many got good images, I just put down the camera to watch. The Chainlink fencing made whatever images possible look like taken in a Zoo.

Cheers
Dipankar

Lovely image Dipankar. The tiger posing in action with a raised paw is simply awesome

Wow! It is fantastic that you saw the entire sequence. One can't do anything about the chain link fence. It is a kill joy. :( Look forward to more.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

PS: I uploaded a sharpened version. Sharpening in the original would look better.

The repost looks good, it certainly boosts the image.

Thanx Sabyasachi, It is indeed better,

Do you think this could have been composed differently ???I mean will cropping some part enhance the image??

i will put up a repost myself, a little more sharpened +vivid version. let me have your thoughts on it.

Cheers Dipankar

Do the colours work, or does it look over saturated ???

Dipankar,

The colours are nearly there. It would be good if you can tweak the white balance. In your posts, it seems the colour temperature has been increased. That often results in creating more contrast and blowing up the whites. When the light is becoming harsh, it is better that the colour temperature is not increased. It is easy to tweak the white balance (Colour temperature) in the raw file.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Hey you were there? I also was there to witness the kill:) I have got a similar picture, will post it soon.

I agree with sabyasachi picture lacks pop or is it my monitor?

Good one Dipankar.
It was indeed a challenge to shoot from the top of the gypsy. I wonder how u managed with the 500mm. We were finding it difficult to shoot with 100-400!

Neil, looking fwd to your image.

Hey Dipankar,
What can one say, but that, a Magnificent Beast,at a fantastic moment, so delightfully captured? Notwithstanding the chain link fence - et all.
Luck to you in more such captures. Time is running out for the Tiger. One can only hope that another such Magnificent creature will evolve. Nature is indeed powerfull.:001_smile: