Leopard Ascent

Here's probably my favourite image from our recent trip to the Kruger National Park, South Africa. We spent the majority of our time in the North, but came down into the Central region for 2 nights and I was happy to be rewarded with this image.

I did an even more detailed essay on the background behind and process to capture this image on my blog, with a whole sequence of photos, so PLEASE do check it out when you find a minute (or 5 ). The link is below my signature, it should be the first post visible entitled "When it all comes together".

We heard about this impala ram tucked into a tree by the roadside halfway between the Olifants and Satara camps. We were staying in Olifants for that night and were due to sleep in Satara the next evening (the camps are about 50km apart by road). I drove out there from Olifants at first light to see if the leopard would be there. It wasn't. I stuck around for about 30 minutes but then heard from another visitor about some lions I could go check out further south, so decided to hedge my bets on that. I came back twice later in the day to see if the leopard was back, but found the kill in exactly the same position every time with no sign of the leopard. We headed down to Satara and checked in for the night...and the time was approaching where I would need to decide on where to head for the afternoon game drive. Satara is a great spot and has wide open plains, alluvial riverine forests and plenty of great routes to take with an almost guaranteed "cat" sighting of some kind. I made the call to stock up on refreshments and spend the entire afternoon waiting for the leopard to return to its kill. It hadn't eaten all day, and there was still plenty of meat left on the impala. I had picked a spot earlier where I would be set up for the "ascent" should the cat return. So I got the family in the car and headed out there. By this time no-one else was parked here so I could claim my position. By this time what had started out as a sunny day had turned densely overcast as well, so the perfect afternoon light falling on the tree I had hoped for was a no-show...

The tree was ideally placed in a dip in the land, putting me almost at eye-level with the kill. After a 4-hour wait there was a big throng of cars piled up around us as people hoped to see this elusive leopard. Someone at the back flashed their headlights and indicated the cat was back there. I looked back and sure enough it was lying under a bush behind me but far from the road...outstretched and apparently sleeping...now would it get up before we had to head back to camp? The light was shoddy by now as it was around sunset and still overcast with the threat of rain. I stayed in my spot as I was only interested in one shot...the leopard climing up that friggin tree!! Eventually the leopard got up...but proceeded to tease me by walking up to the tree and around it and lying down on the left-hand side. Yawning. Looking around. Chilling. Teasing.

Eventually as it neared the time that we HAD to turn around and drive the 23km back to camp in order to make the gate time...it got up and surveyed its kill. So many variable come into play...would it scale the tree from behind, thereby rendering any attempted photo void? Would it even try to climb or lie back down on the ground? Blood pumping...nerves itching...I watched...

Then...as if in a dream and as I had watched it unfold in my mind all day...he walked round the front and positioned to the right of the tree...looking up...

I changed my camera position to vertical and checked my exposure as the light had faded a lot since I last checked my settings/exposure on the tree. By this time I had also taken off my 1.4x converter to get all the light I can onto the sensor. I wanted to test my new equipment thoroughly on this trip, and this would be it! I realised that I would have to halve my shutter speed from 1/400 to 1/200 to gain an ISO improvement from ISO-8000 to ISO-4000 at my chosen aperture of f4 (which shows you how utterly shoddy the light was...I wouldn't even have attempted this shot with my 7D combo ). I decided to take the gamble and hope for the head to come out sharp as I knew how fast these guys can climb.


And then it launched! I followed it up the tree, my D3s clicking away ferociously. It got to the top and started feeding. We had to turn around and head to camp.

I quickly reviewed some of the frames I had captured...and was elated! How fulfilling it is to spend so much time envisioning the shot, preparing for the shot, and then sitting there as the percentage of luck that is needed to tie it all together falls in your lap and you can walk away with one or a couple of images to tell the tale. This one immediately grabbed my attention (though I have a few frames with good sharpness and might share them later), as it shows the movement in the paw but the head is sharp...it shows the position of the kill and the tense muscles of the leopard and its focus on its target. The IQ is amazing at these settings and the noise at full resolution is very little and very manageable (I would even dare say the noise levels at ISO-4000 are comparable to the noise I was getting with my 7D at ISO-400 to ISO-800 , even when cropped).

Anyway...wanted to share the story behind the image as it really is part of what wildlife/avian photography is about, right? That moment when it all comes together to cancel out the hundreds of times that it should've and it didn't...

Techs:
Nikon D3s with Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f4.0 @ 1/200 SS @ ISO-4000
Lens rested on beanbag over car window
Cropped from 12mp to about 6mp
One round NR to the BG, none to the leopard and tree
Levels, saturation, WB adjustments made
Ran luminosity layer on the BG to make it darker