Bengal Tiger

Gallery: WildlifePosted March 24, 2015158 views6 comments

Last month I visited India for the first time, with part of the trip being dedicated to some of the central national parks and tiger photography. Unfortunately, my timing was really off and I only saw three tigers the whole trip, none of which were in ideal conditions. I definitely have a newfound respect for those of you who are able to produce the nice tiger images we've seen on this site. It's a real challenge at this time of year.

This was the closest encounter I had. We were first inside the gates at Ranthambhore National Park on my final morning, and this big male (identified as "T28" by the star pattern over his left brow) was wandering down the road in the dark. I had to bump my ISO quite a bit since we had very little light, and this is one of the few shots that turned out fairly sharp or with little evidence of the road (which is to the right of the frame in this case). The composition isn't too exciting, but it was nice getting a clean look at this handsome face, and I like those dilated eyes.

Canon 1DX
Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS
ISO 6400
1/200th
f/2.8

Max

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Ronald Murphy on March 24, 2015 at 1:14 PM

Beautiful face and love the whiskers. I might warm up the color balance a bit.

Registered on March 13, 2012, 279 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on March 24, 2015 at 1:52 PM

Ronald, good call on the warming filter. I tried it on the print version and it definitely had a positive impact. Thanks.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on March 25, 2015 at 12:42 AM

Hi Max! Congrats on this sighting and capture, even if you were hoping for more! The face is very beautifully shown here, and you're right: those eyes are captivating. This has a very pleasing mood to it. I don't know what you had to work with on your original frame, but it seems like there might be potential for a slightly stronger comp, though it's not particularly lacking as-is. I agree with the suggestion for a shade warmer colour balance overall, though I'm again not bothered by this rendition. I would normally think a lower camera angle would be preferable, but I suspect this is what your sole option was (noted the 70-200 and the fact you probably needed to stay in the vehicle?), and it works decently like this. Nice recovery of the contrast and overall tonality despite the high ISO.

Registered on April 5, 2011, 223 Posts, 1193 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on March 25, 2015 at 11:27 PM

Max,
India can be extremely frustrating for photographers and sightings can be rare. I am sorry you did not get many great sightings, but any are an incredible experience,
Too my eyes this is a pretty great image, especially given the ISO, better luck next time

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on March 25, 2015 at 11:40 PM

The shallow depth of field of just face and head make the cut off body much less of an issue than I would have suspected. I think this works well...and those dilated eyes really are special. Nice capture.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on March 26, 2015 at 10:24 PM

Great portrait of this beautiful male Max, if it were mine I would crop some from the left here.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments