Okavango Leopard

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi All,
I just returned from a great week-long trip to Botswana. Covered the Chobe NP and Okavango Delta. Had some lovely sightings and memorable moments. Was awesome meeting Stu at Jo'Burg with his lovely wife Colleen. Starting off with this wonderful leopard sighting at the Delta.
My gear was the 5D III and 500 II and 7D II and 100 400 II with extenders. I must say I am quiet happy with the IQ of the new 7D II.
7D II
100-400 II
1/125
f/5.6
ISO 1600
The IS of the new 100-400 is amazing.

[Loi Nguyen]

HI Sanjeeve, great to hear you just came back from a mother wonderful trip to Africa. Love the pose and the sharpness of this leopard and the green leaves make for a nice BG. The image looks a bit bright to me, may be by ~ 0.3eV. I'd suggest reducing exposure and adding more contrast. Loi

[haseeb badar]

Hi Sanjeev -- Nice to see you posting again on the wildlife forum ! A beautiful eye contact u have managed and nice to see you are enjoyng the 100-400mm lens. The snout of the leopard looks quite pale when copmared to the overall colors in the image . Also the the bunch of leaves in the LHS foreground of the frame are a bit distracting . TFS !

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev - Glad you had a good trip. I really like the pose of the young leopard draped over the log. Your EXIF shows +2/3 EC and I think Loi is correct +1/3 would have been enough and you would have had a bit more ss. The leopard's face does seem a bit bright, an easy fix in pp too. I would also tone down the two spots in the urc if it were mine. Looking forward to seeing more from your trip.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, glad you had a good trip and a fruitful one. I think Mr Stu will be opening a small B&B with all the BPN traffic filling through SA LOL, glad you got to meet the Bowies, they are great fun.

A cool sighting and I like the relaxed pose and gentle gaze to camera. Depending on the IQ I might crop via a 8x10 format loosing image content from the RH side, so you lose the small highlight in the BKG, I think it then helps retain better focus. I assume you wanted the reach using the 7D, but I might have preferred the 5D and ISO say 3200 too get more DoF and SS, not sure if the nose is just tailing off???? Dropping the overall exp say a third of a stop, then adjusting the Blue, Purple & Magenta certainly helps in the trunk of the tree, but am away so can't say for sure. Good detail & sharpness, but avoid adding any more Contrast!!!! The light green leaves on the LHS do draw the eye, however you can select and adjust that area just to bring them more in line with the rest of the environment.

Just saw Rachels reply, I think EV should have been 0.

Look forward to seeing more.

TFS
Steve

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thanks everyone. The leopard was in shade and under a canopy, it had made that tree and the area under iti a temporary home. He was reluctant to come out seeing the vehicle outside. We just got an opening to get some cool images. I used EC of +2/3 thinking it will give better SS as he was in shade.
thanks for commenting and helping. I have many more images from this sighting to share.
regards
sanjeev

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice head-on pose and she has my attention despite the busy foliage. My initial thought was that it was a tad too bright and the leopard too white?
Glad you had a good trip and I am looking forward to many more images, Doc :cheers: