Challenging Mum

[Steve Kaluski]

This is from the same family I had been working with from previous images, taken around 5.00pm in a small clearing. Mum (Mom) had concealed the left overs in some dense scrub which she then decided to bring out to perhaps share with the two cubs, but on her terms. This little female cub decided to voice her thoughts too and challenge mum for a bit to eat. Pleased at the depth of detail, but more amazed the cub was on the same plane as Mum and to get the ridges in the palate of the mouth too.

Steve
Subject: Leopard cub challenging mum (Panthera pardus)
Location: Botswana
Camera: Canon MKIV
Lens: 500f/4 HH
Exposure: 1/250s at f/6.3 ISO800 0 stop compensation
Crop: Slight crop (original capture horizontal)

Removed an offending grass stem on RHS

[Gregor Bergquist]

Really nice one. Love the eye contact, and the light in her eyes. Also like the sharp teeth. That is what this pic is all about. Very well captured. Tech is great to my eyes.

[Steve Uffman]

very fine as expected....1/250s handheld 500mm on snarling cheetahs! Wow

[Hendri Venter]

Beautiful image Steve. Excellent sharpness and nice soft light.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Lovely low angle and detail. Love the canines and the fact the canines of the youngster are showing almost like its saying to mom to back off from my breakfast... TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

Love this Steve. Great DOF, expressions, low shooting angle and perfect exposure in soft light. The sharpness you manage to achieve at these SS/Focal-length combos is impressive indeed. :5
Can the visible portion of the cub's coat do with a little lightening?

[Ken Watkins]

I like Mum, always nice to get a snarl, but not sure about half of cub, would have been far better with all of it.

As to hand-holding a big lens at 1/250, this is hardly remarkable. Strangely enough I posted an image two days ago of a Lioness with the same combo at 1/200, even more remarkably she was snarling:w3

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Steve - Your usual excellent IQ taken up a notch by the interaction, snarl, low pov and dof. I agree about the sharpness and being able to see into the mouth.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Steve,
like the interaction between mum and cub, i will say nothing about IQ,useless to your images, always excellent.
Would like to see a bit more saturation, not much.And maybe you can squeeze out a tiny bit more contrast (sharpness) in the animals themselves. Just my thoughts.

Cheers Andreas

[Jamie Douglas]

Another beauty Steve. Morkel made a good point about the cubs coat which would balance the image a little better.

Makes me want to get out and field test my 1D Mark IV.

Jamie

[Steve Kaluski]

Cheers Morkel, will take a look.


Makes me want to get out and field test my 1D Mark IV.

Lets get all the CFs set-up correctly first Jamie so the camera performs to it's best and you get the maximum out of it, what's the current Firmware? Drop me a line or we can talk over the weekend.

[Steve Canuel]

Hi Steve,
Real nice IQ here. A little "creamier" than most of your posts, still has great detail where it needs to be. Obviously eating fresh kill but no gore factor to turn those off who may be offended by that kind of thing. Also liking the stare between the two.

[Harshad Barve]

If mine , I will crop it very tight , great momnet
TFS