Leopard! Leopard!

Gallery: WildlifePosted November 27, 2012560 views10 comments

"Leopard! Leopard!" That was my driver one early morning, as we were driving along in one of my favourite wildlife parks in the world - Kabini. You won't find the latter listed as a wildlife park anywhere, though! It is the name of the river that flows through one of the major tiger reserves in South India, called Nagarhole. The part of this tiger reserve that is close to the river is commonly referred to by the name of the river, while the part that is far away from the river is called Nagarhole National Park.
Ours (my wife and our sons) was the only vehicle, and the tree on which this young female leopard was sitting was only about 22 yards away (if you are a cricket fan, you'll refer to this as a 'cricket pitch distance' away!). Only her right eye was seen when we stopped. She looked nervous and seemed ready to flee. But, in spite of the excitement all around, we relaxed, and she relaxed, too. The driver slowly moved the vehicle forward, and now both eyes were visible.
What came next was a God-send, and I'll share those images with you soon. Let it be a suspense for now!
Equip: Canon 1D Mlll, Canon 500 f4 with 1.4 TC
Specs: ISO 500, f8, 1/160s, beanbag on vehicle.
Exp comp: -0.3, Aperture priority

Thank you for taking the time out to look, and for your comments/critiques.

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Jorne de Bruin on November 27, 2012 at 5:22 AM

Very nice framing for the Leaprds face Ajit, and those eyes are great! I might be tempted to crop off the lower left corner to the tree itself (and take some of the top for balance) to focus on the Leopards face and the trees framing it even more! Great shot!

Registered on June 26, 2008, 178 Posts, 2136 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on November 27, 2012 at 8:01 AM

I like the straight look and the setting.
May prefer to clone out the light patch, over the head.
Jagdeep Rajput

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

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on November 27, 2012 at 11:17 AM

What a wonderful opportunity and it looks like you made the best of it. I like this image as posted with the tree frame and the look from the leopard. Excellent shot with nice detail in the larger image, well done, a pleasure to view.

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

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on November 27, 2012 at 11:53 AM

Great viewpoint and V composition. Facial and eye detail are very nice, too. If the bright area over the head is not blown, you might try to tone it down just a little

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

Comment posted by Saurabh Singh on November 27, 2012 at 2:11 PM

Hi Ajit Sir,

Awesome shot and composition.

The intriguing eyes and long whiskers are cherry on the cake

I agree with Mr. Jorne de Bruin that perhaps cropping off a small portion from top and the lower left corner to the tree will put emphasis on the leopard and thus adding more interesting compositional elements to this shot .

And definitely looking forward to your next post .

Regards
Saurabh Singh

Registered on September 6, 2012, 3 Posts, 22 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on November 27, 2012 at 9:06 PM

Excellent composition with a wonderful leopard subject, wonderful eye contact. I don't mind the bright area of sky behind the leopard, looks natural, but I suspect that you lost some over all contrast due to the direct light or in post-processing. This is a tough act to follow, really have me wondering what part II holds????

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on November 27, 2012 at 11:43 PM

You are making me very curious to see your next post(s) Ajit

You framed her nicely in that tree fork. All I would suggest to make this even more perfect is to darken that brightest patch just above the head a bit to the brightness level of the smaller patch above that (I hope you follow me).
Note that your larger image is not really larger

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on November 29, 2012 at 12:00 AM

Vincent, I tried to darken the bright area just above the leopard's head, but couldn't; so, I cloned in some leaves.
Regarding your comment about my 'larger' photo not being larger, I need to clarify: For the smaller image, the guidelines restrict the vertical side to 720 pixels, and so that is what it is. However, I save my files for the web in a 1024 x 768 pixels format; hence, for the larger photo, the vertical side is only 768 pixels tall. It is for this reason that the larger photo seems to be no larger than the smaller one. Whew! I hope I have myself clear. Sometimes, I'm not clear even to myself!

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

Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on November 29, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Oops! I forgot to add the corrected image for you to comment!

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

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on November 29, 2012 at 4:59 AM

Hi Ajit,
There are many ways to darken a bright area. One is to burn the highlights with a brush, another is to clone color, another to use a highlights luminosity curves layer and a few more. Ideally you revert back to the RAW file for best results. The cloning of the leaves is a bit too evident here, but it could work if done more carefully. Regarding your larger image: what is the point of including it if it is practically the same size?

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments