Leopard Leap

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 1Dmk3, Canon 70-200f2.8is lens, handheld. S/speed 1/1600s, f4.0, +0.33 exp comp, iso 800. Cropped from 10mp to 7mp. Overcast. Location Tubu Camp, Okavango, Botswana. 17 Sept 2010, 09h12am. This young female leopard jumped to cross over a channel after her mother, who had already made the crossing. Processed in ACR6, sharpened in PS.
All C and C welcome
cheers
Grant

www.grantatkinson.com (http://www.grantatkinson.com)

[Hilary Hann]

What can I say, this is stunning and you have captured the moment so well. Much harder than it may appear. Did the mother make such an extravagant leap as well?

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Hilary, the mother made it higher, further and faster from a complete standing start with barely a twitch of her muscles on take-off. This all happened quite rapidly and I was busy positioning the vehicle so that the whole group of guests could see (they were not all photogs) the action happen so I only managed to get this young female, and seconds later, her brother.
It was fun to watch.
Thanks for commenting
Grant

[Robert Amoruso]

Gratn, nice job getting the action. I think a s-curve to increase your contrast will make this image pop more.

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Robert, herewith the repost. I punched up the contrast quite a bit.
cheers
Grant

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grant, did our dialog yesterday spur you on? :) The re post works extremely well and Roberts suggestion has really brought out the true image and potential within it. :cheers: Great to see an alternative POV to this wonderful creature.

Personally I do find the © text a little large & slightly distracting but just a personal thing.;)

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - Absolutely incredible capture. The repost takes it over the top. Congrats on an excellent action shot.

TFS,
Rachel

[Lorant Voros]

What a moment captured. Perfect timing. Repost is great and I agree with the text being a bit big. Fantastic work.

Lorant

[Andrew Merwin]

Great image. I like the repost especially. How wide was the water channel that was being jumped over?

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Grant,

Very nice image. The added contrast makes it even better. Well done!

Andrew

[Harshad Barve]

Hi Grant
Text size do not bother me at all as my eyes are locked on this spotted beauty
and for image , Clap , Clap , Clap from me
TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

repost made it rock - great moment Grant!! :)

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks everybody for the comments and the advice. Point taken Steve, I will reduce the size of the copyright text on my next post. The water channel as about 4 metres wide, and the sides were quite steep. Mom made it right over, this young female landed two thirds of the way over, but as it was not too deep, she just made two more bounds after landing to get through. The young male who followed her did the same thing.
Thanks for looking and commenting
cheers
grant

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Grant,
Lovely moment. Wish to see such a fine moment. It is good that you got atleast the adolescents if not the mother. Looks like you were pretty close? Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi Sabyashachi,
Thanks for commenting. We were quite close, and the young male walked even closer towards us before he crossed, though I did not manage to get him as well as I should have due to my excitement I think. All three of these leopards have seen vehicles enough times that they are quite comfortable going about their business without bothering about the proximity too much
cheers
Grant

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Hi Grant,
I asked as I saw you using the 70-200. In India, sighting a leopard is not easy in most of the parks. They are shy and that has helped them in surviving. Look forward to more from this series.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Per-Gunnar Ostby]

wow wow wow

[Ken Watkins]

Amazing shot, probably a once in a lifetime moment, the increase in contrast helped a lot!

[Rahul Sachdev]

Wow, what an image....is it mimicking the Wildebeest? :) Thanks for sharing this rare sight.

[Andrew Aveley]

this is a really superb images and you have capture a unique moment !! Great Stuff

[subramanya_ck]

Hats off for making such a fantastic image