Shot of the Month
Andy Rouse shares an atmospheric tiger portrait from his latest photo book, Noor
Andy Rouse’s majestic tiger portrait
Tigers are something I have a long-term passion for: I have been working with them for over 10 years. But there is one particular tiger that has captured my imagination and my heart, and her name is Noor. For four years I have been following her in her home in Ranthambhore in deepest Rajhasthan, India. This image is one of my favourites from this time. It was the result of a very long day tracking her.
First thing in the morning we found her fresh pug marks on the road, followed them, and caught a glimpse of
her disappearing up the side of a small hill. I work with a great team, and we knew that she would come down in one of two places several hours on; so we left to track and photograph another tiger, before returning later. We used our experience and drove slowly off in the opposite direction towards a very remote waterhole. Sure enough, on the road there were fresh pug marks. After 10 minutes, there was my lovely Noor, sitting in a tiny waterhole.
It’s so tough to get atmospheric images of tigers, and I’ve only managed it a handful of times. I got both Jeeps into a great shooting position so my clients were all set, then thought about what I wanted to achieve. I darkened the exposure by -1.7 stops to create the atmospheric mood, and composed it so that she was looking out of the frame to the left, so that the last rays of the sun lit up her eyes. It was a magical five minutes – proof that persistence and good fieldcraft always pays off.
Noor: Queen of Ranthambhore by Andy Rouse and Aditya ‘Dicky’ Singh is on sale now, priced £40, via www.andyrouse.co.uk