Beauty of a Leopardess

[Brendon Cremer]

This lovely leopardess was resting up on a termite mound taking a break from her attention seeking 4 month old cub. She posed for us beautifully as darkness fell and she moved on for her evening hunt, as she now has 2 mouths to feed. We were very fortunate to find her again in the morning with a bush buck kill close to a dry riverbed where she was feeding with her cub.Image is a composite of 4 images, shot in order to fit in her whole body so as to avoid cropping when changing to a wider angle lens.



Camera NIKON D4
Lens 200-400 F4 VR II
Focal Length 240mm
Shutter Speed 1/640 sec
Aperture f/6.3
ISO/Film 640
Flash exposure - 1.3





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[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice, great flash work and a cracking pose. I just feel its too tight on the top. Love the blue sky BG!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice pano-work here Brendon :5
I too like the blue sky, and would like a tad more space on top.
Though the exposure on the cat looks good, the foreground has that "flashed" look, perhaps toning it down some would help?
Eager to see some of the cub :w3

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Brendon, I would look at a 16x9 format, certainly coming in on the LHS and trimming around two thirds or 1/3 into the tree trunk from the RHS of the tree, leaving room as is on the RHS for the Leopard to look into, thus then adding more sky too. Would agree on knocking back the flash on the FG, I would think overall, the flash looks a bit strong, would have preferred a softer look.

TFS
Steve

[Brendon Cremer]

Thanks very much guys, i will do a repost at home tonight with all of your suggestions.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Brendon,
I really like the suggestions above......mostly coming in on the left into the tree and toning down the FG. As usual.....I am OK with the room above :) Really like the pose and the addition of the environs in this one.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Brendon - nice relaxed pose from the leopard. I'm ok with the pano and room above but agree that some off the left will enhance. Looks like a dust spot just above the ear on the right (as we look at it).

TFS,
Rachel

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brendon,
good suggestions above about another format.
Like the pose of the cat and the cat fitting nicely into the blue BG.

Re cutting down the flash, looks too heavy for my taste.

TFS Andreas

[Brendon Cremer]

Sorry for the delay guys, her is a RP WDYT?

123496

[Marina Scarr]

What a different the RP make. The advice offered on this forum is just outstanding, and I continue to learn so much here. Works so well with the pano crop. Glad you cropped from the left and added space on top. The grasses on the right are very nice.