Tiger crossing

[Ajit Huilgol]

In the heat of the Indian summer, you can rest assured you will find tigers resting in ponds or lakes, and this was no exception. After taking a number of images as this young tigress relaxed in the water, my guide suggested we move ahead and wait as he was sure she would emerge and walk on the causeway that separated two bodies of a lake. I was indebted to him, because just as he had predicted, she came out on the causeway. But what happened next was a bonus - she paused in between some reeds to look directly at my lens! This was not in the script! If we had stopped just a few inches behind or ahead of where we actually did, her face would have been hidden by the reeds.
Species: Royal Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris)
Location: Ranthambhore NP, Rajasthan, India
Date: April 2008
Camera: Canon 1D Mlll
Lens: Canon 500 f4 with 1.4 TC
Specs: ISO 640, f8, 1/500s, beanbag on vehicle
Thank you for taking the time out to look, and for your comments/ critiques

[Harshad Barve]

Beautiful settings here Ajit, lovely eye contact , Loving it all the way
TFS

[michael]

A very nice image Ajit, I have cropped your image a little to see how it looks.

Thank you for sharing.

Michael

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Clean background, though a bit noisy. Good to see it in the opening without the face getting obstructed by the grass. A narrow aperture might have been better here. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[David Fletcher]

Like this Ajit. The space and setting has a good feel as does the light and look back. Bg is noisy as mentioned as was dust and worth a tidy, but no big deal. Nice shot and would have loved to have seen it myself.

[Kiran Poonacha]

I like the extra space in the OP, loved the setting too, the noise issue is already addressed.. congrats..

[Kiran Khanzode]

The head turn towards you has definitely made this one, Ajit ! Seems like one of the same cubs that Das photographed earlier in the year.

[Vivek Khanzode]

Ajit

I have a noise removed version; cannot upload for some reason, will email it to you. This one has generic NR from PS and 0.4pixel gaussian blur to the bg. Cannot do much better because of the lowres image, but you get the idea.

Love the look and the quality of the light btw...

Thanks for sharing.

[Edited]

Ajit, Just redid the NR steps on my PC at home... Here it is. Let me know if you like it. This one has the noise removed with NI and 0.4 pixel Gaussian blur added.



-- Vivek

[Fabs Forns]

Excellent eye contact and the way the subject is looking through the reeds, make the image special to me.
Noise issue has been covered. Looking forward to more!

[Steve Canuel]

Nicely composed. The feel of the heat comes through in the image to me.