Rosetta II

[Gabriela Plesea]

For those of you who already met Rosetta ,this is an image of her rolling on the sand in front of the Landrover ( taken in the Kalahari in March last year). I have a very big and unsightly support for my camera (built by a local engineering firm) which luckily sticks quite far out of the window. Getting out of the car was out of question, it is not only against the rules of the Park but it would have frightened the leopard as well. Rosetta climbed off the fallen tree after about an hour of either yawning and dozing off to sleep or watching intently a few springbok. She then slowly dived onto the sand in the road, thankfully a bit to the right of the car...Unfortunately she was too close for our lenses-this is what we ended up with...Where to stop with the crop? :tinysmile_shy_t:

(This image was processed some time ago, I am thinking of re-processing if it is worthwhile. Note the insects (tampans) on Rosetta's abdomen, my guess is she was trying to get rid of them while rolling in the hot sand)

Kind regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - I think I would crop just to the right of the front paws to avoid the clipping of the rear paws. My guess is that it would be worth reprocessing to see if you can recover a bit more detail in the whites, particularly on the chest area.

TFS,
Rachel

[Diane Miller]

This is one I haven't seen before -- LOVE IT! Agree with maybe a little more detail in the whites but I wouldn't score it down as is. (Hope she got rid of the cooties.)

Love the rear paws, not sure I'd crop it any differently.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, firstly yes, go for a new PP of the image as I feel you have gained a lot in the past month or so and would do better justice to the image IMHO. :w3

In an ideal world this is where two, or even three camera bodies come into their own with various lens attached, a real pain at times, but can save you time & nail the shot rather than scrambling around and changing lenses, ditto using fixed lenses. So this was shot with a 300 fixed, but perhaps a tighter crop might be good? At f/7.1 you have enough DOF but the ISO is way to high, SS 1/5000 certainly would freeze the action. :bg3:

The whites look OK, but I might just selectively tone down the brighter white just on the lower half by the front paw, easy to do and would make a difference. The light again looks harsh creating a lot of hard shadows, look to opening up the shadow area of the face a fraction and watch the harsh blacks around the eye. Adding a little more vibrance & saturation may also help to bring a bit more colour to the coat, again all these are subtle and perhaps personal taste/observations. I might be also tempted to remove the few little spots above her head to, just for a cleaner look. I do like the eye contact and that see feels very content if front of you, not stressed or worried. :cheers:

Please can you try to add the Exif data when posting it does help and others can also learn too. :w3

Not saying this is right and the IQ has suffered but perhaps something like this for a crop, I did extend the BKG a tad too.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Steve, I am truly humbled by your kindness-you take so much of your time to help me, I hope to reward you with better images soon...

I always write down the EXIF data before I process-I am so sorry, at times I simply forget to put it on, so absorbed I am with writing the story behind the image. So here it is: Nikon D3S, Nikon VR300mmF2.8, ISO 500, 1/5000s, F7.1

I normally carry a D3S and two D300S cameras, a Nikon 500F4 , a Nikon 300 F2.8 and various other lenses (Macro, a wide angle lens and an older zoom lens which Andre gave me few years ago). I try not to change lenses around too much, the Kalahari is a dusty, often windy place; all my equipment is lying next to me in a Pelikan case and I can grab anything in seconds. In this case, we were so close to the leopard that attempting to remove the camera and its lens from the support would have made noise - I feared this would have disturbed the leopard. Also, I thought at the time that she might go for the springboks, therefore I wanted that shutter speed in order to freeze the action (instead, she goes and rolls in front of the car:bg3:)

Thank you once again Steve-I have taken note of all your suggestions and will re-process asap:5

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, I don't do any more than others do here, however it's always great to see people develop & grow from the broad spectrum of help & advice given by the Forums members.

Wow, that's some kit you carry and with your explanation, I full appreciate and understand the reasons why you were in the position you were in and the rational behind the EXIF data, no worries thanks for the additional info. If you are going to revisit the image, take your time there is no hurry. :S3: look forward to seeing it, as & when.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Gabriela,

sorry to be late on everything. I am tangled up with some other stuff. I love the RP crop from Steve K. and overall of this image. Great one.

Have a great day :)

[Morkel Erasmus]

I'm still green about this sighting (sorry for only commenting now!)...
I agree with the crop suggestion, as well as for re-processing this one.
I can see it was taken in harsher light as the fine detail seems to have suffered, but re-processing you may be able to recover more as she was quite close so heat haze shouldn't have had too bad an effect on the overall IQ.
Interesting to hear what you lug along...I've tried using 3 cameras in the Kgalagadi but it was a bit cumbersome for me...rolling with 2 again now. :e3

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hi Morkel, not to worry about commenting-I still go back to check what I have missed from time to time:S3:, right now Andre's kids are with us (for the next two weeks) and I will have to catch up with everything, just sneaking a peak in the mornings for now and a comment here and there...About the Kalahari-we carry so much stuff that there's hardly any place for us left! Andre in front with his 600 and D3S in vertical position on the seat next to him, below a large bag containing his 2x D300S and 300 lens, his 200 and converters, flash, remotes, cards, you name it. I sit behind him and next to me my Pelikan case with the 300, 2x D300S, Macro and wide angle, again flash and remote and cards, batteries, and a videocamera too. The D3S lies below in a tripod bag (lens attached). Nothing at the back, only fridge and freezer and coffee and cookies:bg3:. So when we go out for a drive in the morning we might only return when the sun goes down.

I will try to get more detail from Rosetta, I have quite a few images, will post and see what you think!

Warmest regards,