Mother Leopard and Cub

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 1Dmk4, Canon 300 f/2.8 IS, handheld. S/Speed 1/320s at f/4.0. Iso 3200 Cropped slightly, and processed in ACR and CS5 including selective sharpening and NR. This adult female leopard was moving with a cub long after sunset in northern Botswana. We had been viewing from further away when she picked up the cub and walked right by in front of us. It was quite a special sighting for me and I was happy to get this image in such low light.
I have not been able to spend much time on the forum lately but hoping to be back a bit more soon.
All C and C welcome
cheers

Grant

[Ofer Levy]

Very sweet moment captured nicely! Pity about the clipped ear.

[Harshad Barve]

PRICELESS !!!!!!!!!!! :cheers:
TFS

[Ken Watkins]

Grant,

I have to agree with Ofer, about the clipped ear and almost clipped tail.

Pity you did not have someting like a 70-200mm as a sighting like this is a genuine rarity.

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - huge cuteness factor here. I saw the thumbnail and thought it was going to be from your recent travels but looks like it was closer to home for you. I agree about the clipped ear but still a sighting and photo I would love to have.

TFS,
Rachel

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Ofer, Ken, Harshad and Rachel
The fixed lens doesnt leave one much room at times like this, but I have taken a little off all around from the original shot here, and have a bit more of the females ear, though not the entire ear. There is also more space available below the cubs tail. I cropped this frame a bit as a full crop contains a sliver of the females front leg which I tried to remove. I have reposted the original frame (not properly processed at all, just resized) here for any thoughts on alternative cropping if any, or would you just leave it as shot? I also have quite a few frames shot before this one with the entire face of the mother, and more space all around, but I chose this one due to the angle I had on the cubs face.
Thanks again
Grant

[Harshad Barve]

Grant , your OP is best , Ear clip does not bother me as my eyes remains riveted on jaw of female and little cub , This is terrific image ,

[Grace Scalzo]

Grant, this is really an image of a lifetime. The expression of the youngster and his fuzziness is priceless. Personally I do not feel that the clipped ear is problematic. What I might suggest is that you actually shave a bit more off the top (so that the "clipping" looks purposeful). This also puts the mother's and the baby's eyes on a diagonal towards the lower corner which looks really strong to me. I do like extra room at the bottom for his tail. Lastly, I would perhaps brighten the little one's eyes just a tiny bit.
I totally love this image and your work in difficult shooting conditions is admirable.

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Harshad, with the posted crop I attempted to clean up that small piece of BG behind the mothers neck, as well as the sliver of front leg running the right side of the frame.
Thanks for commenting again...appreciated
cheers
Grant

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Grace, your comments are much appreciated, and I will try out your crop suggestion which sounds quite good to me. As the second post is full size, I have lots of pixels to play with for cropping, and going a bit tighter will make the cub more prominent, which was my aim in shooting tight with the fixed lens anyhow..thanks again.
cheers
Grant

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - When I saw the OP and also again the original file my thoughts were the same as Grace's, crop some more from the top to make it look more purposeful. Congrats again.

Rachel

[Marina Scarr]

A very powerful picture and came out quite well considering the conditions when looking at your settings. Would love to see what you come up with for a tighter crop.

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - I hope you don't mind but I played a little with the crop and here's one possibility though some may think it is too tight. I think it places the emphasis on the cub. WDYT? I used your unprocessed version and only cropped, nothing else.

Rachel

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for that Rachel, I havent actually gotten around to trying it out myself, that looks stronger than my original post, if perhaps the tiniest bit too tight on top for me. It definitely places more emphasis on the cub, which is the main focus of my shot. Thanks again for taking the time to repost..
cheers
Grant

[Charles Glatzer]

Grant,

Everyone here myself included wish they had this image in their portfolio.

Love it!

Chas

[Mark Wiseman]

Hi Grant,
A wonderful image that tells a story.
Thanks for sharing,
Mark.
:5:5

[dankearl]

I view here occasionally to see these always nice photos, but this one is over the top.
I think critiquing a clipped ear in this, is just completely missing the big picture.
A one of a kind capture and photo.
Thanks for posting, a wonderful photo.

[Ofer Levy]

Grant, your repost is an improvement. Rachel's repost doesn't work for me.

[Ken Watkins]

Once again I agree with Ofer, but in my opinion the original capture is too tight.

Whatever crop is undertaken, the vital factor (for me at least) will be missing i.e. the entirety of the mothers head. It is I suppose all a matter of taste .

[Saurav Mahanta]

Grant loved your repost. What an amazing sigthing!
I wish it wasnt this tight but then again theres only so much you can do with a fixed focal length

[Grace Scalzo]

Grant, No matter what you end up with as far as composition, it is a totally amazing image, full of interest and character. Rachael took way more off the top than I envisioned, I was thinking just a sliver. Really a great picture, I've come back and looked at it several times.

[Kiran Khanzode]

It is indeed a portfolio shot, a very private moment captured very well in tough conditions..:cheers:

Kiran

[Morkel Erasmus]

Late to the party here, Grant...

Awesome moment and I think you did very well to frame this like you did and get it as sharp as you did given the conditions and circumstances. All-in-all having shot it with a 70-200mm as mentioned would have given you more 'options'...(knowing you own one, was it not at-the-ready here? :e3).

I prefer your OP...but can go with the out-of-camera crop too. Rachel's crop doesn't work for me as I would rather have half-an-ear than have the eye so close to the upper edge of the frame (sorry Rachel!) :w3.

I took the liberty of playing with the colour balance in your OP as it was a tad 'green' to me. I know given the conditions one doesn't want it too 'warm', so the blueish-cyan hint of colour is fine IMHO. I just feel most cameras (Canon and Nikon at least that I've worked with) tend to render a lot of "greens" when using Auto WB...which I'm assuming you did here? :c3:
I merely adjusted the colour balance channels for shadows, midtones and highlights away from cyan, green and blue (but mostly from green) to taste...curious to hear what you think here? (difference is subtle!)

It's obviously a visual pleasure having you post again, and I do hope you find time as your schedule winds down to share some more amazing moments like these with us...:cheers:

[Brendon Cremer]

Its a lovely image and even better sighting, yes technically there is room for improvement but im sure you are quite aware of that, i think many may not appreciate the magnatude of a sighting like this, one i would love in my own library one day, clipped ear and all:w3 Just out of interest i Would be very keen to see what this looks like full size as 3200 ISO for a Mk IV is a serious push, how do you find it at high ISO?

[Morkel Erasmus]

i think many may not appreciate the magnatude of a sighting like this, one i would love in my own library one day, clipped ear and all

I heartily second that thought! :bg3:
I for one did not mean to sound pedantic about this - it was a cracker of an image from a rare sighting! :5

[Ofer Levy]

i think many may not appreciate the magnatude of a sighting like this

I do like this image despite its flaws but I remind everyone that this is a photography forum so rarity of a sighting is a secondary factor when it comes to critiquing an image IMHO.

[Ken Watkins]

I do like this image despite its flaws but I remind everyone that this is a photography forum so rarity of a sighting is a secondary factor when it comes to critiquing an image IMHO.

Well said Ofer:cheers::cheers::cheers:

Heaping so much praise on a missed opportunity is quite frankly bizarre

[Morkel Erasmus]

I do like this image despite its flaws but I remind everyone that this is a photography forum so rarity of a sighting is a secondary factor when it comes to critiquing an image IMHO.

And that's why there was plenty of critique of this shot up to now...:w3

[Morkel Erasmus]

Heaping so much praise on a missed opportunity is quite frankly bizarre

Mmhmm...'missed opportunity' is very relative, Ken :w3. I think many here feel that the opportunity wasn't missed per se. I for one mentioned that I don't mind the cut off ear as the eyes of mom and cub have all my attention. Framing wider would have lost some of that emphasis IMHO. I also did agree with you that using a lens like a 70-200 would have given Grant more options when composing the few fleeting frames he had to snap this moment.


It is I suppose all a matter of taste .

Ditto.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Wish this was mine :w3 Stunner.

[Danny Laredo]

Very special sighting and great image.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

This is such a 'once in a lifetime shot' !!! Love your repost . Like Harshad , clipped ear does not bother me , but the inclusion of the full lenght of the leg of the mother , adds a lot to the image !!! Did I mention ' cuteness personified ' ??

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Saurav, Mark, Dan K, Ofer, Chas, Grace again, Kiran, Morkel (for reposting), Rakesh, Vivaldo, Danny and Brendon, for your opinions and thoughts and taking the time to write. In response to questions, Morkel, thanks for sharing the workflow with your repost, much appreciated. I like the slightly lighter, more open feel of your post. I do have a 70-200, but I was purposefully looking to shoot tight on the cub. I also currently only have one Mk4 body, and I am not quite as confident of shooting at iso3200 with my other Canon bodies. A few minutes before taking this frame, the leopard was resting on the side of a mound and playing with the cub. I took a number of frames from a distance using the 300 (to keep a good distance away) in which I have the whole of the female and the cub, which I will get to posting sometime soon. I was upset that I clipped the ear, but I was also happy to get a sharp shot with as much of the cubs face showing as I did. It would have been great if the leopard had walked a few metres further away, but moving the vehicle was not an option as I did not want to disturb them at all.
Brendon, I find the Mk4 the best Canon body to date that I have used for high iso, and am completely happy to use it up to iso1600 with little or no NR needed, for large prints or even for heavy cropping. Iso 3200 shows a fair bit of noise, plenty acceptable for print up to A4 though with a little careful NR. Given the processing skill level of some of the members here, I am sure there are some who could get better results than I do when it comes to noise reduction and sharpening. But my preferred range is up to iso1600. In this instance the leopard was close and walking quickly, so I did not want to risk a slower shutter speed for fear of blurring the image, and rather went with the higher noise level. I also chose to shoot at f/4 to try get enough dof for mom and cub. I find the Mk4 combination of extra reach from its smaller pixels, good resolution and decent high iso performance an excellent combination for the type of shooting I do.
Please excuse my late response to your comments, I have been out of internet reach for the past five days.
cheers
Grant