Inspired

[Rachel Hollander]

This week's leopard shot is inspired by Morkel, of course. Taken in the Timbavati Game Reserve as the leopard cub descended the tree.

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 140mm
1/400
f5.6
ISO 400
EC +2 (the light angle was horrible).
HH from safari vehicle, cropped to vertical from horizontal, levels, curves, converted to b&w, sepia tone added and sharpened in CS5.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, this I really like, I loved 'Topsi Turvey', but this one...

Firstly, being on an diagonal gives a very strong composition, but then the pose of the leopard with the front paws/legs splayed out, eyes fixed, neck slightly tilted just conveys the curious nature of this cub. What was he/she looking at? Personally I would change anything, although being away I can really tell on the conversion/tint, but I'm sure others will hopefully chime in. One of your strongest images to date IMHO.

TFS
Steve :cheers:

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve for the very kind comments. I think the cub was just staring at the ground and trying to figure out if he was still too high to just jump down. The tree trunk was fairly wide and he seemed to be a little unsure of the best way down.

Thanks again,
Rachel :cheers:

[Hilary Hann]

Rachel, would agree with Steve that this is a good strong image, love the pose of the leopard and the strong diagonal composition.

[dankearl]

Another terrific Leopold photo, Rachel.
It has a dramatic quality to it, a stalking pose and terrific comp and sharpness.
Very nice.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Hilary and Dan, much appreciate the kind comments.

Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Wow, Rachel. Wow.
Love everything about this. Only thing I was wondering about was contrast...so I took it into PS and burned midtones and shadows at 5% on the tree and leopard, and liked it. Let me know what you think.
:5 :cheers:

Honoured that you cite me as inspiration for this rendition...I would be stoked if this were mine. :bg3:

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel, thanks very much for the compliment. I would have never played with the sepia toning without your recent series. I tried the 5% burn of shadows and midtones and do like it, especially on the tree.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[LauraDyer]

Think this works great Rachel, bw a great choice for the image, and a super pose and eye contact from the cub.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Laura

[Sid Garige]

Rachel,

Like every thing about it. Wish the tree is little less dominant. Perfect color tones and excellent details.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Sid :wave:

[Jamie Douglas]

WOW Rachel this is awesome and superb B&W conversion work.

Jamie

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel, late on this one.
Keep it short , just a cracking image , very powerful and so simple.

TFS Andreas

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Jamie and Andreas