Masego

[Gabriela Plesea]

Masego is about 18 months of age and has this incredible pair of long whiskers... When we spotted him the day before we did not realise he was a youngster, so rather surprised he ignored a small herd of springbok passing by. He was lying in the shade of a tree, well camouflaged, ready to pounce and his tail twitched nervously. As soon as the herd came into view he retreated under some massive tree roots sticking out of the ground and just watched. Shortly afterwards he lost interest...

We had the privilege to observe him on three consecutive days, at the time this image was captured ( day two) he was foraging about, searching for wild cats in camel thorn trees. He is a healthy, agile, well fed subadult - his mom Miera still catches the big prey. But very soon he will be on his own...

Nikon D4
Nikon 500 F4
ISO 3000
F6.3
1/8000s

Subject previously in the shade, therefore the high ISO:2eyes2:

Thank you so much for viewing as well as comments/suggestions on my previous images, I appreciate it.

Kind regards,

[Jonathan Ashton]

A beautiful leopoard, I like his whiskers and the details in his coat are great. He looks at though his position is idyllic with all the neighbouring grasses and plants keeping clear of his fur. Lovely shot I like it!

[Anette Mossbacher]

Cool image Gabriela, love the comp and all. Sorry cannot say anything about color...etc. am on iPad. It is calibrated, but I do not think that works proper :)

enjoy your weekend

ciao Anette

[Jonathan Ashton]

Now Annet has mentioned colour I am wondering if there is a slight yellow/green cast, the foliage has a rather muted tone to it -( bet I am showing my ignorance of the true landscape colours?)

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - Love the image design here, the open mouth and the angled walking pose. Looks like you got the color profile issue sorted. I think just give the midtones a little boost and it will take care of Anette and Jon's point. Also remove the slight amount of cyan creeping in on the front leg. WDYT?

TFS,
Rachel

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello dearest Rachel!
Thank you so much for taking the time to RP - I hadn't noticed the cyan, very grateful to both you and Jon for picking this up:) I see the difference, I like your subtle changes very much:5
Glad you like this young chap, did not want to bore you with too many images of him but I had nothing ready to share last night. Will see what other animals "lurk" in my folders over the week-end:w3

Anette, very happy to hear from you, thank you my friend:S3:
Myself and Andre are going to have a little braai (barbecue) now, so we wish you all a wonderful Friday evening:wave:

Warmest regards,

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Gabriela, this is a well composed image of this gorgeous animal. Love the environs and the pose of the leopard. Nicely done. Rachel's RP sorts out the minor nits.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Loving the KTP leopard posts Gabriela! And it's so special to see the Kalahari this green, eh? We had the same 4 years ago in Feb/March (incidentally also a leap year).
Rachel took it up a notch with her RP. Where did you stay when you had these sightings? Kieliekrankie?

[Marc Mol]

Love the green habitat here Gabriela and head on comp, with Rachels RP bringing out that midtone boost, enhancing nicely.:5

TFS

[haseeb badar]

Hi Gabriela -- This is another great image , loved that you included the environment as much as you could ! The Rp sorts out the minor issue which i felt instantly at the first look . You are treating us with some really great images .

TFS !

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you friends, appreciate your comments and time to view:)

Morkel, indeed the KTP was quite a treat this time around. I feel like going back, now:bg3: We stayed at Urikaruus for four nights. The other Park visitors were well behaved too so not much trouble when we all ended up together at a special sighting such as this. Save for one individual who made it difficult for us all, stressed the animals, and drove from Mata Mata tented camp at illegal speed to get to such places (waterholes, previous sightings) before everyone else. He blocked the traffic and was quite aggressive in his pursuit to get the shots, a very arrogant fellow and you might know him so I will drop you an email with details. Urikaruus gave us special sightings although not always possible to photograph, to mention a few: Miera with Masego, two female lionesses with two subadults, a Blackshouldered Kite, one male lion in the company of two lionesses, a shy Cape Fox, a Badger crossing the road, the Hyena Clan at Kamqua, a huge male leopard at Urikaruus waterhole (at night), and two wild cats (one if them actually a cross between a house cat and a Wild cat).

See you there next Feb, Morkel? :w3

[Basil Dardagan]

This is beautiful - The green KTP in all its glory