Leopard week

[Hilary Hann]

Masai Mara, 2010 midday.
7D; EF300mm IS; 1.4 TC; ISO400; f8; 1/250

[Marc Mol]

I love the look of anticipation of the leap here Hilary. Or perhaps just a scent mark? Either way........did this Leopard cooperate?
TFS

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Marc, yes he did, but not at this tree. He moved to one further away so my better pix are of the descent not climbing. I'll post one day when my pp is up to scratch. Cheers.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Hilary Love the behavior captured and the framing Seeing more of the tree works better than going in tight !! Only wish it would have flicked the tail in a different way to avoid the light area !! Excellent .. and does seem like Leopard week :)

[Steve Canuel]

I like the way the tree hangs over the leopard. Together with the leaves on the right, it implies to me an alley way leading back to the thicker jungle in the BG.

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Al & Steve. Appreciate the comments.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Hilary, I guess I would echo Al's comments, however I would also probably have gone for f/5.6 which would have also helped the BG too. might run a little NR on it again? Is this a crop or FF?

Missed the story to go with the image. ;)

TFS
Steve

[Danny J Brown]

Hilary - I love the way you framed this one and that is one beautiful tree....the leopard is pretty good-looking as well.:) When I first looked at the image I was thinking scent mark planned. Very nice one to look at.

DB

[DanWalters]

Really nice comp. Like the tree and the way the leopard is looking up.

[Hilary Hann]

Hi Hilary, I guess I would echo Al's comments, however I would also probably have gone for f/5.6 which would have also helped the BG too. might run a little NR on it again? Is this a crop or FF?

Missed the story to go with the image. ;)

TFS
Steve
Steve, f5.6 … good idea for next time. ;) Did one round of USM, didn't consider going again. This is a crop to about 2/3 of the image (guessing here).

The story … I was tired and grumpy when I posted (yeh, yeh, it happens to the best of us). So this is it. We found this leopard on one morning asleep in a tree (this tree, actually). Spent a day heading down to the Tanzanian border and wandered back late afternoon. Same leopard, same tree, different position but still very asleep. Following morning checked again … still sleeping! Who said lions were bad subjects for sleeping?
Came back around lunch time just to check and there he was, on the ground. I have a series of photos of him hunting around in the grass, under rocks, sniffing his sleeping tree. Then he moved to a large fig tree and started to climb it. As he neared the top two vultures flew off from a nest which they had made at the very top. He climbed into the nest, checked it out, looked disappointed with the lack of a chick to eat and then descended. So I have quite a long series of photos. Hope I'm forgive for not posting the story with the photo. :o I have posted 2 photos of this boy previously and may have posted part of the story. Perhaps you missed them!!! :p

Thanks Dan and Danny for your comments.

[Harshad Barve]

I don't know how I miss this earlier , but this is soooooooooooooper shot IMHO , loved this as posted
TFS

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Harshad. :)