The descent

[Marc Mol]

One from the vault here.
Taken at one of my favourite areas, the Sth Luangwa NP, Zambia. An area I'll be returning to early November. One of THE best areas for Leopard. (toss up between here and the Sabie)
A female Leopard descends down a large tree fork after stashing her recently killed Impala.
Left at FF, could have cropped to vertical, (better to have originally composed vertical:2eyes2:) but like the expanse of timber showing more environment.
D2Xs 300 f/2.8VR +BB flash -1.7EV 1/250s ISO400 Sept 2007

C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Hi Marc, very interesting composition, IMO it work nicely. The tree bark makes a very nice BG but might have enjoyed a little more leopard..... still nicely done :cheers::cheers:

[Stu Bowie]

These cats can climb and descend in a blink of an eye, so getting some leopard in the frame is a bonus. :w3 I do like the concentration on the leopard, and does stand out against the bark of the tree. Colours look good Marc. Another vote for wanting to see more of the leopard.

[Tom Graham]

Interesting you say South Luangwa NP great for leopards. And I've heard that before. But in 2005 and 2006 (Sep both times) we were at Robin Pope camps Nsefu and Tena Tena for total of 10 nights. And saw one leopard, only once!!! But lions, elephants, buffalo, etc. were good sightings. And the Luangwa area has a feel and atmosphere that I've seen no other place. Like gong back in time 100 million years.

You mention Sabie, my experience in Sabi Sand and Timbavati reserves South Africa is to see leopards almost -every- game drive!! And I've spent total of about 40 night in 5 camps there. (Obviously one of my fav safari areas, the greater Kruger area).

Oh, yeah, nice shot, I like the colors of the leopard against the subtle tree bark colors. Reminds me of one I took this last Feb in Serengeti.

Tom

[Marc Mol]

Appreciate the comments everyone.


But in 2005 and 2006 (Sep both times) we were at Robin Pope camps Nsefu and Tena Tena for total of 10 nights. And saw one leopard, only once!!!

Tom

Almost unheard of Tom,..........talk about bad luck!
In my 3 trips to Sth Luangwa (not counting one in the early 90's where everything was scarce due to continued poaching), there were only 2/3 nights (out of over 30) where we didn't encounter Leopard.:t3

[gail bisson]

Lovely interesting picture. I like the light on the leopard and love the textures. Would love to see this a s a vertical!
Gail

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Gail
I have the vertical here, but for me it's a little cramped, whereas the original tells more of the story.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Interesting take here Marc...I agree having a full vertical would've been nice. I think this "kind-of" works for me, though I think cropping some of the space off the LHS (which isn't adding IMHO) would strengthen overall composition here?

I have South Luangwa high on my safari wish-list! :bg3:

[Rachel Hollander]

Marc - an interesting different view. Leopard looks nice and sharp. We all have these shots where we wish we would have gone vertical at the time. I hope you're feeling better and that we'll be seeing some more Alaska shots soon too.

TFS,
Rachel

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Marc,
I agree that a full vertical would be nice. Nevertheless, this is an interesting composition as well with the bark of the tree. May be slightly brighter would be even better for my taste. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Harshad Barve]

excellent perspective in image and I liked the OP most
TFS