Been sorting through some older shots and re-editing some - big cats really are a passion! This was taken about a year and a half ago in Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana. We were coming to the end of a day's drive and spotted a trail of 4x4s coming out of a track. The drivers conversed and it turned out a fresh impala kill had been seen cached in a tree. Of course the luxury tourists weren't willing to sit around for ages near a tree with a dead antelope in it and had moved on. Luckily after staying some distance away and watching we saw the female leopard return to her kill and were able to approach a bit closer. Over half an hour of chomping elapsed before we were even aware of the full grown cub sat on the branch above us waiting for mum's signal to come and join the feast!
It was a shame we had to leave to make our camp before dark before the full clan of hyenas arrived that we could hear making their approach!
Looking back at the shot now its a shame about the shadows cast over the eyes which I think lack a bit of sharpness, but yes, the meat really was that red!
EOD350D + 100-300 @ 300mm, f5.6 for 1/250 @ ISO160
About 15% cropped off and small twig + leaf cloned out
All comments welcome
Posted by Dawn Monrose on July 24, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Nice light! I agree it looks a bit soft, would some more sharpening sort that?
I like the pose, peering round the tree, and the nose lick! For me it's a little too tight I think, I'd like to see what the other 15% looks like!
Good eye contact and I don't dislike the crop but I think I would prefer to have seen more of the prey so that you could possibly identify it - assuming of course that too much had not already been eaten!
The other 15% just added a messy BG of twigs above the head and didn't really ease the tightness on the left. Didn't get any more of the prey in with this shot, although do have others with more in (but unless you know what impala look like you wouldn't recognise it!).
Discussion
4 repliesIt was a shame we had to leave to make our camp before dark before the full clan of hyenas arrived that we could hear making their approach!
Looking back at the shot now its a shame about the shadows cast over the eyes which I think lack a bit of sharpness, but yes, the meat really was that red!
EOD350D + 100-300 @ 300mm, f5.6 for 1/250 @ ISO160
About 15% cropped off and small twig + leaf cloned out
All comments welcome
I like the pose, peering round the tree, and the nose lick! For me it's a little too tight I think, I'd like to see what the other 15% looks like!
Nice composition, and eye contact - well caught!
Phil.
Good eye contact and I don't dislike the crop but I think I would prefer to have seen more of the prey so that you could possibly identify it - assuming of course that too much had not already been eaten!
David
Thanks for looking and commenting