Ustaad...the boss
Feb, 2018Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This picture has been shot at the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve in India. This was shot in April 2015. Unfortunately, this tiger Ustaad, killed a Forest Guard just 2 weeks after I had shot this picture and he was captured and moved to a zoo. While this was not the Tiger's fault, but the Humans took advantage of the Tigers silence and put him behind bars.Time
This picture was shot almost towards the end of the day. It was the month of April and the temperatures in this jungle were at a searing 45 Decrees Celsius and we found this guy cooling in a small waterbody...lying there for a very long time. Finally at around 5.30 pm or so he got out of the waterway and started walking towards the jungle. Our jeep was ahead of him as he kept walking on the road behind us...he was about 25 ft behind us. He kept on spraying and marking his territory as he walked and somewhere he just felt too exhausted and he sat down...and this is where I got this portrait shot of him . To be precise, this was shot almost at 6 pm or so with fading light.Lighting
April months are fairly bright and sunny here in India. But this was shot almost towards the fag end of the day around 6 pm when we had to get out of the park and the light was fading.Equipment
This was shot using Canon 1 DX, with 300 f/2.8 prime lens with a 2X converter. No tripod or flash user. This was shot handheld.Inspiration
You always get a shot of a tiger in a waterbody, or next to a kill or walking in the jungle...but sitting here like a domestic cat....that was worth a million bucks !!Editing
Yes, there is some amount of post processing done on Photoshop. As I said, it was shot in poor light condition and hence had to up the exposure and contrast and increase a bit of colour saturationIn my camera bag
The Canon gear was becoming too heavy for my raging shoulders and back and hence decided to move out of the conventional DSLRs to Mirrorless. I carry a Sony A9 and A7 RII with 100-400 and 16-35 and a Fuji XT2 and XT3 with 100-400 with 1.4 X TC and 50-140 mm lens.Feedback
Wild life photography is a lot of luck and needs a lot of patience to ensure that you are lucky. And when you see an imposing figure like a tiger or a lion barely 25 ft away...keep your hands steady and go on rapid fire shooting.
