Take A Walk On The Wild Side - Tigress

Came back yesterday from a hectic 2 week trip to a couple of forests in India. It was extremely hot with temperatures reaching 110+ degree F during the day. This specific image was made at the Rajbehra Dam in Bandhavgarh which falls in the territory of a Tigress and her 3 young cubs who frequent the dam waters for the occasional sips in the hot summer weather. I visited this location for a few days at different times of the day and believed that the soft early morning light was best suited to photograph a tiger on this dam.The only problem was to get a Tiger/ Tigress to walk the ramp before I left Bandhavgarh. Evenings were backlit or had no lighting effects and I passed off a couple of available chances(or arrived late) of photographing a tiger in this place around that time. Call me crazy ! :-)

This image was made on the last day of my Bandhavgarh trip last week. Early that morning, we saw that a Tigress was sitting in a cave on the other side of the dam and took a guess that it could walk the wall any time. My driver was actually getting desperate to get me "the shot" and tried to move the jeep back to the hill but he didn't realize that "the shot" was right here waiting to happen instead of being in the cave or grass, where the remaining gypsies were hoarding up.
Finally,our jeep took position by the water in the closest spot, I waited patiently for an hour or so before this young tigress finally showed up on the dam wall and walked the 50 or so feet distance (undisturbed...a rare thing in Bandhavgarh) to go up the hill on the other side. In the 10-12 seconds I had,I have obtained 2-3 frames to showcase from that set. I almost got the images that I had visualized. I say almost, because she never made direct eye contact with me.

I intentionally left the front portion of the dam wall in the frame to create a z-axis reference. Let me know what you think.

Tech Details: EOS 40D, 300 f/2.8 IS with Canon 2x tele, 600mm at f/8, full frame, ISO 400, Ai Servo, Av mode. Beanbag from jeep.

C & C is most welcome.

Regards,
Kiran

What a morning it turned out. I enjoyed your company

AFA image , no nits, Great shot, I could not even manage 10% of what you have done

TFS
Harshad

Hi Kiran,

I think this is a nice image. I like the movement and the expression on her face.

Thanks for the additional info regarding the shot, it is interesting.

What is a z-axis?

Apana

Classic Image, good that you changed the position of watermark :)
Love the way you have done it, thats the best way to do it...
instead of running behind the tiger as everyone in bandhavgarh does, wait for the tiger to come to you. you may have less chances but if that happen the results are always best.
the light is perfect also the exposure , composition is good. no nits.....

Well! That's how it should be. Rather than behaving like a paparazzi and chasing and running your jeep over a tiger, it is better to predict and wait for the tiger where the light is good. This sounds so simple, but we hardly do it.

I don't mind that the tiger is not looking at you. If the tiger had looked at you, then it would have looked kind of artificial, as if someone is whistling to attract its attention. The eyes are in focus and that makes the image for me. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

PS: The copyright notice looks like cast in stone.

Liked the composition. Nice effect of light and shadow. Waiting gives an advantage of being totally prepared for the moment you want to capture and making the most of it, like the above one :).

Thanks, all for the comments.
Mrudul, definitely, waiting did pay off in this case cos Harshad and I were the only two guys out there while all the other gypsies were photographing her in her cave/ walking on grass on the other side of the hill. Having a private time with this Tigress was a dream come true (even though it lasted only 5-10 minutes) especially in summer when the tourists were flocking Rajbehra daily.Luckily no one was around on this specific day....just this day :-).
The only problematic scenario (that was going through my mind all the time) I will reveal here was how the composition/framing would be at 600mm. Once the gypsy was in position, I had to make sure I frame the entire animal and not just the face/half-body/shoulders as I would not get enough time to swap cameras or recompose/reframe once the Tigress entered the scene. So, I dialed down to f/8 in advance and once she entered the scene....hit her tummy in each shot(people usually go for the face unknowingly), got all body shots in focus/frame(including the tail), phew ! You can say I was prepared (mentally)...in this case.

Kiran, yes, moved the copyright ( big issue for some folks on INW :-)). Anyway, yes, that was my plan for this trip...to get some unique moments in great light instead of the routine touristy shot fighting with 40 gypsies for the same image. However, I admit that I did fall short of my expectations since I got choosy this time around and only clicked the shutter when I felt the light was right. But anyway...I am not disappointed.

Sabyasachi, you are absolutely correct. Eye contact with me might have ruined the mood, someone else on another forum told me exactly that. I do have a frame where she's looking at Harshad...actually...and the face is the only part illuminated, will post that one soon.

Thx, folks !

Regards,
Kiran