This was shot recently in bandhavgarh on 31 March 2011. Every time I passed this place I wondered how beautiful it would be if a tiger is near or in that water. One evening it just happened we followed the rajbehra tigress as it crossed in front of our vehicle and then went straight towards the lake. The evening light was perfect, the water still, the green sal reflection in the water created a magical atmosphere, it was magical we just found a place on the other side of the lake, we were running out of time already as it was a long drive to the gate but we had to wait atleast for a few moments, this was a dream setup. It was hard to find a place where the lake and tiger was visible from the trees and from a small opening we could see the tigress walking straight and on the log. She tested the water and slided in the water as if not to disturb the still water. I clicked a lot of frames in those few seconds as she entered the water, drank, swam and posed for a few seconds before moving ahead. It is easy to get lost in such a beautiful setting and mess up the photograph. This is one of the frame captured.
Shot with Nikon D300 + 200-400vrf4 lens + monopod. ISO 800, @f4 , 1/1000s, underexposed by -0.7 matrix metering.