Manhattan Wildlife (C)

[Rachel Hollander]

Well not really. As you can imagine Manhattan doesn't really have a lot of non-human wildlife other than birds, rats and squirrels. There is, however, a small zoo in Central Park. It successfully bred its snow leopard which resulted in the birth of 2 cubs. This is one of them. Don't forget to get your images ready for our March Theme - Head Shots!

Canon 5D3
70-200 II @ 115 mm
1/400
f5
ISO 1600
HH, shot through glass, cropped from landscape to portrait, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Ian Cassell]

Hey, Rachel. I am a zoo-photography fan (although I would love to travel to exotic places as well) and I have fond memories of the Central Park Zoo from when I lived in CT. I also am a fan of snow leopards (they had a pair of cubs at the Albuquerque Zoo when I was there in December during my Bosque visit). One of the hardest things about zoo photography, I've found, is to make the image look like it might have been taken in the wild. It can often be very difficult to get rid of signs of cage, food bowls, etc. The pose you got here and the BG work wonderfully. One could imagine this little one on a hunt. If you're not opposed to that sort of thing, I might consider cloning that little branch on the snow in the FG. Otherwise I like this as it is.

[Ashleigh Scully]

Oh I love this!!! What an awesome look its giving you. I read that a wild snow leopard was photographed hunting a blue deer somewhere for the first time ever. Great shot!

[Loi Nguyen]

I tried zoo photography only a couple of times and found that it is actually quite hard to make a good image due to the unnatural habitat. Not sure if the rocks here are the habitat for snow leopard and kind of give away. The pose of the snow leopard is great and you had great curious eyes looking at you. Good job with shoot thru grass. Loi

[Dave Spates]

For being shot through glass the color and detail is pretty good, eye focus spot on, the way the rocks are led me to believe zoo though before I read the text below the photo, though manhattan in subject may have led me to believe that also lol. Beautiful capture of the kitty though :)

[Morkel Erasmus]

Love the pose Rachel! With this almost B&W look, I'd explore a pure B&W with good tonal contrast as well?
Good IQ/sharpness despite shooting through the glass.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, you did well, I wasn't aware you had shot through glass, so even better.

All looks good, perhaps either f/4 or f/5.6. Colour looks good, although the sooty snow is not ideal, but I'm being picky :bg3: it's gorgeous here, sun is just coming up over G&T mountain -6 at present. A great animal to see/witness, would love to see one either here or in the wild.

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot perfect timing, the look on the cub's face is really endearing - almost cartoon like! I bet you were thrilled when you got this it really is a great shot.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Rachel what wonderful kitty cats you have over there in NY.
Really like this and specially for a Zoo shot, you did very well shooting through glass, the keepers must have kept the glass in very good condition.
Nice comp and you good processing playing good together.
The look of the cat is really nice.
Well done :5

TFS Andreas

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

The look on the face of the snow leopard is what makes this image for me. Too funny and too cool. I like the setting and your comp is awesome. Well done with the captive animal.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everybody. I'm glad you like this one. I think the cub is slightly cross-eyed and it does give him/her a sort of cartoonish look. The cubs gave us a brief but good show just before closing time.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Steve Canuel]

Beautiful cat Rachel and the surroundings are not too far off from their snowy, rocky habitat. And much, much easier to access.

[Anette Mossbacher]

I had such a laugh when I saw the eyes, looks fantastic. All said already :bg3:

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve and Anette :wave: