Take A Walk On The Wild Side - Tigress

[Kiran Khanzode]

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