Mr. Spots - The Leopard

Gallery: WildlifePosted March 21, 2011158 views14 comments

Even though I have a ton of Leopard images, every time we spot one in our trips gets me excited. Finding a Leopard in Lake Manyara NP in Tanzania is pretty rare. We entered the park very early that morning, there was no one around us. Suddenly, we noticed MrSpots....staring at us from the bush. After a few "Kuacha, kusimama !", the driver stopped !

He was a sub-adult male, very bold and he was good looking too !

70-200 f/2.8 IS II, 200 mm @3.2, ISO 400. Slight crop from right..

Regards,
Kiran

Comments

14 comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 21, 2011 at 5:08 AM

A wonderful image of such a handsome Leopard Kiran, I can well image the thrill you experienced just seeing it so close and then compounded by at least a factor of 10 having actually nailing the shot! :^)

Very well done, it fires up my excitement even more for the opportunities I'm praying to get in South Africa later this year, thank you very much for posting this beauty up :^)

Cheers!

Ashley

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by richard remington on March 21, 2011 at 8:33 AM

Kiran,

Amazing capture! I envy you and would one day love to see a leopard in the wild.

Rick

Registered on March 12, 2010, 105 Posts, 368 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on March 21, 2011 at 9:35 AM

Great eyes! The bit of tail curl provides just the right amount of compositional balance too! Good work.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on March 21, 2011 at 10:21 AM

Not very fond of square compositions, but this works very well !
Leopard seems puzzled, whether to wish good morning or not.

I may prefer to clone out the bright leaves on the left side.
Jagdeep Rajput

Registered on April 29, 2008, 686 Posts, 2857 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on March 21, 2011 at 11:16 AM

Kiran, definitely a lucky find for Manyara. Congratulations.

I like the composition here, with the diagonal line of foliage coming up the right side to obscure the leopard. I do think it would benefit from a slight crop from the bottom, but overall I'd be very pleased with this image.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on March 22, 2011 at 12:18 AM

Hi Kiran.
This is a beauty, whilst it is nice to get Leopards in the open (extremely rare), I think the foliage adds to this greatly, although I would like slightly less on RHS.

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on March 22, 2011 at 6:50 AM

Agree with you, Kiran, he sure is handsome! I like the way he is only partially visible. This is so symbolic of a leopard, isn't it, not showing himself fully!

Registered on December 19, 2008, 302 Posts, 2055 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on March 22, 2011 at 9:08 AM

Hi Kiran,

I really like this one. In in full agreement with Lon that having that little bit of tail showing adds nice compositional balance. I also think the bit of yellow/orange in the upper right corner really contributes nicely to the overall colour palette. I think Max has a point about perhaps cropping a tad off the bottom, but as is the image is already very pleasing. My biggest nit? That I don't get the pleasure of viewing a larger version of this image!

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on March 22, 2011 at 2:58 PM

Hi Kiran! Nice finding you here as well.

I love the overall composition here...the curled tail and pinsharp eyes are very engaging. One thing is I find the image to be a tad too "green" overall? Maybe adjusting the colour balance a bit more towards yellow and red would help with this - not sure if it's just my eyes that are getting fuzzy in front of the PC

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on March 22, 2011 at 4:42 PM

I can see why you would get excited, wonderful image. I like the inquisitive look and good detail around the head area, way to go.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Oscar Benavides on March 22, 2011 at 5:08 PM

I love the image of this leopard surrounded by these green colours.

Registered on January 2, 2011, 12 Posts, 141 Comments

Comment posted by Marsel van Oosten on March 23, 2011 at 9:03 AM

Great shot - love that oof foreground and the intense stare. A little crop from the bottom, and you're done.

Registered on March 9, 2004, 285 Posts, 2277 Comments

Comment posted by kiran khanzode on March 23, 2011 at 12:12 PM

Thanks, all ! Agreed on the crop suggestions...

Registered on February 21, 2009, 83 Posts, 428 Comments

Comment posted by Stu Porter on March 24, 2011 at 4:39 AM

Hi Kiran, great shot, lovely colours, alert ears and the tail is there too !!, what a beautiful creature, well done on getting a Manyara Leopard, it is very thick bush in most places, I am sure this shot means more to you than a lot of your other leopard shots, thanks for sharing, cheers Stu

Registered on March 10, 2011, 8 Posts, 58 Comments