A Young Prince

[Brendon Cremer]

This young sub adult male was resting up on a falled down tree after feeding on an impala kill his mother killed some hours before. Chitabe Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana.



Camera NIKON D3
Focal Length 400mm
Shutter Speed 1/500 sec
Aperture f/5.6
ISO/Film 400

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Brendon - looks like something startled him. The leopard looks good with nice color and sharpness. Were the leaves moving in the bg? The sort of smudged look of the leaves behind the leopard are slightly distracting to me and I wonder if a bit of blur or NR to smooth it out would enhance the image. BTW any flash used?

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Brendon, you might like to check the EXIF as it shows: f/4 1/640 ISO800 -0.3 EV 600mm lens

I like the warm, natural saturated light of the early evening and the relaxed pose. If her tail was somewhere in shot I think that might have been nice, just looks as if it's been 'docked' as I guess we see so many with, therefore it looks a little odd without, but still a nice shot and perhaps that's in an ideal world. I can see what Rachel means when you compare the RHS to the middle/LHS. Also having the little bit of green foliage in the centre of the tree trunk is not ideal, but again nothing you can do, that's wildlife. :S3:

TFS
Steve

[Roman Kurywczak]

Oh man he was on a nice "perch" Good observations above and I am OK with this as presented. I might remove the blue on the LH frame edge with a crop but this still looks pretty darn good!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brendon,
like the pose , look , colors , tones , contrast on the leopard and the FG, do not mind about the greens in front of the " perch".

The BG does look kind of artificial or heavy processed , maybe.... !?

But still a nice one for the main subject.

TFS Andreas

[Brendon Cremer]

Thanks very much for your comments everyone.

Rachel you are quite right the wind was blowing quite a bit so the bushes behind him were moving quite a bit, not sure what to so, i have added a slight blur to the bg may try a little more and see how that works. No flash used.

Steve, my apologies you are quite right about the Exif, no idea what image i was looking at when i copied it over. I see what you mean about the tail but unfortunately it was out of sight on the other side of the branch. Any suggestions for the bg? I too dislike the green infront of the trunk but i just can get it right trying to remove it and making it still look right. The only reason i can think of for the middle bg being a bit more OOF than the left and right is that bush is further behind?

Andreas, very little done to the bg, a slight blur, drop the contrast and increase the vibrance.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I like the light and clarity on the cat (spotlight or flash used?)
I agree on the look of the BG, might tone down the vibrance and highlights there to place more emphasis on the subject. I am OK with the "tailless" presentation, as it could have been curled up along the back of the body.
Have you tried selective desaturation on the green patch on the stump?

[Brendon Cremer]

Thanks very much Morkel, i will give that a bash.