Young Leopard

Gallery: WildlifePosted November 24, 201688 views7 comments

This youngster was luckily not very nervous and stated with us for quite a while, although in the shade.
Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana.

EOS 1DX
200-400 mm F4 with 1.4 ex at 560 mm
F 6.3
ISO 800
1/500
EV +0.33

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on November 24, 2016 at 9:45 AM

Love the tongue. Nice capture of this beautiful youngster.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by William Bickle on November 25, 2016 at 8:34 AM

Hello Ken,... a real beauty, like the tongue inclusion. When I looked at the large version I scrolled down a little to show less of the top. I think a tighter crop from the top a little would really help. by eliminating that very bright top portion.

Bill
www.billbickle.com

Registered on June 13, 2011, 183 Posts, 1702 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on November 25, 2016 at 11:15 AM

The detail and color look perfect, Ken. I think if you can selectively process to reduce the brightness of the sunlit foliage in the foreground and the background to make it less attention commanding, and still keep it looking natural, this would be a stunner.

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

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on November 25, 2016 at 4:27 PM

Beautiful cat with a stunning face. The bright greens on the top and bottom are pretty distracting, so brining them down would make this really exceptional.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Cay-Uwe Kulzer on November 26, 2016 at 4:19 AM

Ken,

one day we will have to meet and go for photo-tour together. It looks as if you meet always leopards, a luck I do not seem to have ...

I like the overall setup of the image and find that the shade is giving you soft light that lets the main subject stand out a bit stronger from the background. Nice also that is doing something enlightened

Registered on January 27, 2004, 494 Posts, 4021 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on November 27, 2016 at 2:31 AM

Thanks everybody, I did try to darken the top of the BG but evidently not enough.
Cay-Uwe,
I have been very lucky with Leopards, other than places like Sabi Sands which is much to "commercial" for my tastes, the best place I have found lately is Khwai Community in Botswana,

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

Comment posted by Ingrid Vekemans on November 29, 2016 at 12:38 PM

What a great look he's giving you... those eyes cool

- lovely shot, taken at exactly the right moment! I personally quite like the layers of bright-shadow-bright, but I think the bright patches could have been darkened better, in a more natural way. I personally like to play around with that in Lightroom in such cases. All in all: beautiful!
Grt, Ingrid.

Registered on August 2, 2010, 138 Posts, 780 Comments