.grrrrr, baby
What a summer that was. That summer of 2008.
The Photography Intensive program from the Rocky Mountain School of Photography had a couple of extra-curricular workshops we could participate in.
One was called “Wildlife Up Close” and was done in Kalispell, MT.
One of the main models was a real life Siberian tiger (obviously not a Montana native species).
Nice kitty
From a distance with the long lens on it, and quietly chilling in the pond, it was cute. In a wildlife kind of way.
We shot a whole series of images, from the picture above here, the featured picture, the tiger running back and forth further near the bushes behind the pond. And then back into the pond. Where it sat for a bit and I took the time to change the memory card in the camera.
The best wildlife shots are lucky shots
So I turned the camera in portrait position on the tripod so I could easily access the card slot. Took out the card, occasionally eyeing up to see what I was missing, while my fellow photogs were clicking away, and put in the new card.
Then looked through the viewfinder, focused (back button) and saw the tiger come out of the water.
It was my luck that the camera was still in vertical position on the tripod, which resulted in a picture with the tiger in all its glory rearing up out of the water.
The sprays of water are the cherry on top.
Had I not just changed memory cards, I would’ve still been shooting landscape, like my fellow photogs, but now…
Now I got this.
News worthy
When I uploaded it to my stockphotography portfolio, it was pretty quickly picked up by a number of news agencies, who featured articles about it.
I’m pretty proud of this shot, even if it was more luck than actual skill or timing.
What stayed with me most from this shoot, though, was the real size of this tiger. In the water, and far back against the bushes, it was “just” a big cat. But I didn’t know the definition of “big” until it got out of the water like this. Rearing up like this it was like 3 meters tall. It was immense! When they’re walking on all fours, you don’t realize this.