Male Tiger in Kanha

[Tiger Ramesh]

Hi. I shot this at 9.30 AM on 2nd April 2010, from an elephant back in Kanha National Park. We tracked this tiger for nearly 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Camera - Lumix (Panasonic), Leica lens - 18X Optical zoom, F 4.4, shutter 1/1000, ISO 160. I prefer this camera because it is light.

[Bibhav Behera]

Hi Ramesh,
Good to see a tiger post from you. The elephant back (??) and the finger are unwanted elements in the image. Would have been better if you had avoided them. The focus on the tiger is fine. Thanks for sharing.

[Tiger Ramesh]

Hi Bibhav. Thanks. I was struggling with a mono-pod and facing the opposite side. So had to struggle a bit to turn and get the tiger. The elephant was moving (shaky) and the Tiger was also about to disappear into a nearby bush. Couldn't avoid the toe of the mahout and the head of the elephant Thanks again.

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Good to see Tiger post a Tiger, Lovely image and dangerous too. To me it looks a close encounter. This light seems quite harsh.
I have never tried a safari on Elephant as yet, must be thrilling to sight a Tiger on Elephant back.
Look forward to more from this series
tfs

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice eye contact. Agree the light is a bit harsh. Look forward to more from Kanha.

Praveen, photographing from an elephant back is difficult because it keeps moving and the angle also becomes quite steep.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

A different view. Never tried the safari elephant as a framing element. Moving a bit higher to include the full face would have been better. Ofcourse, without the finger at the left it would have been better.

It is not easy to move around from one part of the elephant to other. One photographer fell from an elephant while trying to photograph a tigress and her four grown up cubs. The shocked cubs fled in different directions. The tigress got annoyed and growled. Fortunately, she didn't charge. And this photographer could escape unhurt as he fell on the marsh. Ofcourse, his ego took a big mauling.

I think two years, in bandhavgarh the collector fell down from the elephant. There has been cases when the elephant has got scared and ran away.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Tiger Ramesh]

Gentlemen.

Thanks for you feedback.

The light is too harsh because at 9.30 am, Kanha was really bright and temp started soaring. I was shooting in Aperture priority mode.

I wish I could have raised the camera a bit to get the full tiger. But my monopod was on elephant so when the elephant moved, the camera moved too.

And by th way, thats not the finger on the left side of the picture. It is the toe (foot) of the mahout resting on the elephant head

Thank God. I didn't fall. The elephant was brave. She is 73 years old and the most experienced in Kanha (her name is chanchal kumari). The Tiger once growled at us however. These guys take you close to the tiger. I actually asked the mahout to stop and give space to the Tiger.

Will post few more soon. Thank you.