Gallery: WildlifePosted March 14, 2011139 views6 comments
Taken at the Miller Park Zoo. One of the rarest big cats.
Canon XTi
1/160 @ f-5 ISO 400
Canon EF 75-300 IS USM @ 110mm
IS on HH
Comments
6 comments
Comment posted by Lindy Martin on March 14, 2011 at 9:11 PM
Great shot of the eyes for detail. I find the cat melts into the rocks/tree a bit, do you have some with different apertures to blur out the background? It is a great image of how well nature can camouflage itself! Great detail on the face, good job!
Registered on March 10, 2009, 60 Posts, 169 Comments
Comment posted by Richard Teller on March 14, 2011 at 9:18 PM
Nice portrait. the color and detail are very good.
Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments
Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 14, 2011 at 11:40 PM
Wonderful shot John, and so lucky to have to photograph albeit in captivity :^)
Not sure if this would have been possible, but only thing I can think of that might have made this shot even more compelling would be if you'd been able to lower yourself a bit allowing possibly a little more contact of those marvelous eyes. Nevertheless, it's a terrific picture to look at :^)
Kind regards,
Ashley
Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments
Comment posted by Brad Hill on March 15, 2011 at 9:23 AM
Hi John,
Compelling eyes (love the colour of them!) and such a beautiful coat. Only one nit that you might have been able to do something about - I wish those whisker tips near the bottom right corner weren't clipped.
The nits you could do nothing about? In a perfect world a lower angle would have been nice, but I'm guessing this was totally impossible for you to do given the likely constraints of shooting at a zoo. I think better separation from the background would strengthen the image as well, but again the only way this could occur would be to have the background object further from your subject (i.e., not something you could do much with by altering your aperture) and you certainly could not control this!
Overall a compelling image given the constraints you had to work under...
Cheers...thanks for sharing this
Brad
PS: As always, curious about the subject - how rare (in the wild)? Do you know anything about the prognosis for the survival of the species/subspecies?
Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments
Comment posted by Gary Gulash on March 15, 2011 at 8:37 PM
Handsome cat. He looks a bit unhappy, maybe I'm just reading too much into it though. I think a bit more room at the bottom would be nice. Well done.
Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments
Comment posted by John Tobias on March 15, 2011 at 9:57 PM
Thanks everyone for your comments. As of 2 years ago if I remember right there were less than 30 Amur leopards in the wild, and barely enough for a captive breeding program. Boris, when we received him was considered surplus to the breeding program, but now he is at another zoo where and is a designated breeder. In this photo he was watching people in front of the exhibit, and waiting to see just how close I was going to get! He is a great animal and I miss having him close by. Just a bit of history of this subject.
Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments
Comments
6 commentsNot sure if this would have been possible, but only thing I can think of that might have made this shot even more compelling would be if you'd been able to lower yourself a bit allowing possibly a little more contact of those marvelous eyes. Nevertheless, it's a terrific picture to look at :^)
Kind regards,
Ashley
Compelling eyes (love the colour of them!) and such a beautiful coat. Only one nit that you might have been able to do something about - I wish those whisker tips near the bottom right corner weren't clipped.
The nits you could do nothing about? In a perfect world a lower angle would have been nice, but I'm guessing this was totally impossible for you to do given the likely constraints of shooting at a zoo. I think better separation from the background would strengthen the image as well, but again the only way this could occur would be to have the background object further from your subject (i.e., not something you could do much with by altering your aperture) and you certainly could not control this!
Overall a compelling image given the constraints you had to work under...
Cheers...thanks for sharing this
Brad
PS: As always, curious about the subject - how rare (in the wild)? Do you know anything about the prognosis for the survival of the species/subspecies?