Shooting Tigers – The Photographer’s Blog Number 4 – Alan Seymour

FOCUSED – Krishna (T19)

In May 2015 my partner Jan and I went to India’s Ranthambhore National Park, this was my third visit and Jan’s first. We stayed at The Ranthambhore Bagh with Dicky & Poonam Singh, Dicky being one of India’s top wildlife photographers and a personal friend. Coincidently, it was Dicky’s and my birthday on the same day, so Poonam had organised a double party for both of us and it was held the night before our actual birthdays, as she didn’t know how we would feel after a night of partying.

We were booked for our first safari on May 24th, my birthday. I had high hopes that I would get to see a tiger as a special birthday present. Well, Krishna the Lady of the Lake made sure of that. We spent some quality time with her; as she walked and stalked through her territory. With the help and expert guidance of our good friend and naturalist Salim Ali, we managed to get some great shots of this special tigress over the two weeks that we were there.

I had decided to use Krishna on the front cover of my 2016 calendar, entitled “Tigers of Ranthambhore”. Having photographed her over the last three years this beautiful cat has never disappointed and the image I chose was one I called “Focused” as it shows Krishna walking in front of us with her head down and her eyes fully focused on what might lie ahead, with the image background grey and out of focus Krishna really stands out in the late afternoon light. This was the first image that I sold in the UK after returning from India after that amazing trip. The image was captured using Canon EOS 1DX & Canon EF 500 F4 IS. Settings 1/320th @f5 ISO 800 Handheld.