From the Shadows

[Morkel Erasmus]

It's one thing to capture a nice "clean" photo of a leopard out in the open (I do love those).
It's entirely another to capture the essence of that most elusive and stealthy feline in the African bush in a single frame.
This image kind of does the latter for me.
Your thoughts?

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f4.0 | 1/250 SS | ISO-4000

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - You have threaded the needle of the foliage well and I love the eye. I just feel that the blacks make the right side of the frame a little heavy, bringing the darks up a bit seems to alleviate that feeling. Overall, nicely done.

TFS,
Rachel

[Glennie Passier]

Unusual and beautiful. The OOf foliage adds to the stealth. I like the way the light traces the outline of the leaves. My only suggestion would be to tone down just a bit, the leaves on the LHS. They draw my eye a little. The darker RHS does not bother me at all.

Thank you for sharing!

[haseeb badar]

Hi Morkel -- Time and again you prove that you are very good at what you are doing and this image is no exception . You see things differently and present it very nicely . I do love these kind of images , i would love to have such images in my collection . Very nicely done and TFS !

[shane shacaluga]

I like this one a lot

Probably wouldnt work in colour but that sharp shiny eye through the black and white foliage is just perfect

TFS

[keith mitchell]

Hi Morkel,did wonder about colour but the more I look why try to change something this good?without going into repeats Haseeb covers my thoughts perfectly.Excellent.

Keith.

[Stuart Philpott]

Morkel,with our little island largely bereft of large predators,(ha, many years ago I had a point blank encounter with our infamous beast of exmoor, I won't derail further but hence the largely bereft),it's somewhat difficult to have this awareness of large felines lurking.

For me you have achieved your goal in an incredibly evocative way. I really like the almost vignette around the image and that brighter plant to the upper center lifts and balances things for me. It's a wonderful moment captured.I share your love of this stealth hunter caught in the open,but this is even more special for me mate. The fact once again you have chosen monotone to display and once again my love of colour has been thwarted by your expertise making me love this,says it all for me .
Awesome Morkel, in the truest sense of an overused word

take care kiddo cheers so much for sharing this

Stu

[Gabriela Plesea]

Works for me Morkel and I like the conversion, very much.

The elusive leopard, lurking in the shadows. Dramatic as well as intense, well seen and captured my friend, very original too.

Love it, would not change a thing, I think it is beautiful.

Warmest regards,

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thank you all for the kind feedback.
It actually looks quite nice in colour as well - may post it sometime soon :5

[keith mitchell]

(It actually looks quite nice in colour as well - may post it sometime soon) Will look forward to seeing it Morkel.

Keith.



Morkel Erasmus

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Morkel

The in focus eye works well here with the sinister dark BG.
Pose adds.
My only question- why the noise at 4000 ISO- was it a big crop?

[Ritesh Nangare]

what a brilliance of Black and white you have here.....lovely. loved the sharp eyes of subject and beautiful surroundings...

TFS.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Morkel

The in focus eye works well here with the sinister dark BG.
Pose adds.
My only question- why the noise at 4000 ISO- was it a big crop?


Andre, it's full frame.
Light was very low here.
I have come to detest the look of noise-reduced images. I prefer a hint of grain, especially with monochrome.