Tiger weekend series#4/Bandipur

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Call it face to face or head on, we had some amazing moments with this tigress on last weekend. A small negligible crop on the left to avoid a dark tree.

Camera - Canon EOS 7D, 500mm

Av 6.3
Tv 1/200
ISO 400
Focal length 500mm
Almost full frame
Bean Bag Support
Date and Time : 3rd Dec'11 @ 8:30am

[Mrudul Godbole]

Lovely stare. I liked the walking pose with the raised paw. Thinking how a vertical composition would look here. Did you try one? Thanks for sharing.

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Yes Mrudul, I have a vertical as well. Will post it later
thanks

[Suraj Sreedhar]

Lovely face to face image & eye contact is great.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

typed a long response and lost connection (am not in a broadband connection now)

Lovely sighting. It would have been fantastic in frontal lighting. I am not too happy with the present lighting as one needs to be careful with the focus and the eyes don't come well. Love to see tiger in the wild. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Thanks Sabyasachi, its unfortunate I couldn't get your detailed comment. I am aware and infact the moment I clicked the first shot, I knew its a tough lighting conditions as there was back-light. But one needs to adapt to these conditions while we are in the wild.
My 1D didn't work due to change in settings, I mounted the 7D to 500mm and shot these images with a tigress walking directly towards me. So if you ask me I did reasonably well give the circumstances & situation.

The ideal situation would have been the frontal lighting, i do i have few images will share them soon.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Lovely Compo praveen.Nice pose and stare. wud love to see the front lit images.
TFS
Roopak

[Anand Madabhushi]

Praveen,

While in the wild we are not, in so many ways, in controllable situations. We can not expect the subjects to come thru frontal lighting, look in to the camera etc. If they do they are nice to us.

Regards

Anand

Thanks Sabyasachi, its unfortunate I couldn't get your detailed comment. I am aware and infact the moment I clicked the first shot, I knew its a tough lighting conditions as there was back-light. But one needs to adapt to these conditions while we are in the wild.
My 1D didn't work due to change in settings, I mounted the 7D to 500mm and shot these images with a tigress walking directly towards me. So if you ask me I did reasonably well give the circumstances & situation.

The ideal situation would have been the frontal lighting, i do i have few images will share them soon.

[Anand Madabhushi]

I like this as it is. The environment is also equally important besides the subject.

Call it face to face or head on, we had some amazing moments with this tigress on last weekend. A small negligible crop on the left to avoid a dark tree.

Camera - Canon EOS 7D, 500mm

Av 6.3
Tv 1/200
ISO 400
Focal length 500mm
Almost full frame
Bean Bag Support
Date and Time : 3rd Dec'11 @ 8:30am

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Praveen,

While in the wild we are not, in so many ways, in controllable situations. We can not expect the subjects to come thru frontal lighting, look in to the camera etc. If they do they are nice to us.

Regards

Anand

Wildlife photography is all about anticipation. It is not about firing away the moment there is an animal in view. The best photographs are created when one understands the subject and its movements. It is not often that the tiger or subject will walk into the place where the lighting and background is ideal. However, that is what is the difference between Good and GREAT.

Long back, much before the current breed of digital photographers came into picture, I was talking with Rajesh Bedi (Rajesh Bedi and Naresh Bedi - the two brothers have done phenomenal job in photography/filming our wildlife) and he was saying that what is the point in clicking images of tiger looking left and tiger looking right. After a few such images try and look for some behavioural shots. I fully agree with him and that is what I try to practice. I am not insisting that people follow it.

It depends what kind of benchmarks we set for ourselves. When we post an image there can be a few good shot and great shot comments, however, after the passage of time, one will not even give a second glance at many of the shots. Only when all the elements fall into place, the image becomes all time favourite.

In one trip, if I get one or two good shots, I consider that trip successful.

While commenting, I don't just try to advise the photographer. It is more of my feelings and ideal scenarios as well, so that any reader of this discussion, if he/she is so inclined, can get a direction or path to follow. After all, if we can motivate others to document our vanishing wilderness and wildlife then it is a great help to our conservation movement.

Sabyasachi