Kalahari leopard

[Mark Wiseman]

I took this image of a female leopard at the "samevloeing" waterhole in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. She had a cub with her and I was able to take this image as she looked round at her cub.
For many people that visited the KTP, she was a regular sighting at "Samevloeiing". Much evidence of her still remains with scratch markings on the two large camelthorn trees just south of the waterhole still being visible. She was a bit of a show off and many images of her and her cubs were taken at this location. She became part of a documentary film until one day she was accused of killing a goat on the Botswana side of the fence on a farmers farm. A trap was laid and she was duly caught. Very little importance was given to the documentary film maker and even less importance to the sole remaining 12 month old cub. The trapped female leopard was then transported to Nossob, over a hundred miles away. She caused quite a stir in front of the tourist office in Nossob camp before she was released north of Nossob at Kwang. The documentary filming came to an abrupt end, the female cub would most likely have died and together with its mother, which would have tried hard to get back to its previous territory. A very sad story that in all likelihood could have been avoided if people on both sides of the fence had talked to one another.
Any comments and critiques welcome.
Camera details as follows:
Canon EOS 1Ds MkII
Canon EF 500mm f4 LUIS lens
Aperture f4
S/S: 1/25 sec
ISO: 200
Image processed in ACR and CS5 and processed on a 15" MBP.
The image was taken at 18h27.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Mark - nice look-back pose. She seems very light in coloring, I think you could punch it up by adding some midtone contrast. Good sharpness for such a slow ss. I'm curious as to why you didn't up the ISO to try to get a bit more ss in the field.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

You know I love this one Mark. Superb pose. Superb sharpness for the SS used.
@ Rachel - Kalahari leopards do look a bit different than in other areas of Southern Africa...colouring is lighter to blend in with the pale rocks and the dunes a bit better, rosettes are also slightly different. :bg3:

@ Mark - this story still infuriates me. I remember being at the Twee Rivieren camp when this had just gone down and the filmmaker had poured his heart out to us...:eek3:

I've wanted to take a crack at this one for a long time now.
In this repost I toned down overall brightness using a multiplied luminosity mask, then added midtone contrast using Hougaard Malan's action (see my sticky at the top of the Landscapes thread), and then sharpened the head another slight round...

Perhaps I darkened her coat a bit too much, easy to correct...

WDYT?

[Mark Wiseman]

Hi Morkel and Rachel,
Morkel, I agree that the OP lacked mid tone contrast, your repost is better, but a wee bit darker than what I remember. I have had a look at Hougaard's tut's and in this case I did not apply the mid tone contrast as I would, using the luminosity mask for the basic mid tones as you have done. Thank you for your help. The £&£@&@&£@£!!???@&&@£@ that you hear from SANPARKS must always be taken with a pinch of salt, I can assure you, in most cases it is said by a PR person who does not have the facts.
Rachel, the settings were not ideal as the opportunity presented itself within a matter of seconds. I had to drive the Landcruiser to a point where I could take the image, unwind the passenger door window and then shoot the image over the extremely anxious passenger who, together with the window, offered support. I feel the result was more than satisfactory under the circumstance and with the knowledge I now have the ISO would be 2500, the s/s 1/1600 and the aperture at f8, or something to that affect in manual mode and auto ISO. I hope that this covers the tech question you asked. If you have any others please feel free to ask and thank you both for your comments.
Best wishes,
Mark.

[Gregor Bergquist]

A sad story, but a very beautiful cat and image. Thanks for sharing.

[Ken Watkins]

Mark,

What a remarkable image I love it:cheers::cheers:

I think that Morkel has made it too dark, perhaps somewhere in between?

Seems that Botswanan farmers are as bad as ours, what an awful world we live in!

[Mark Wiseman]

Hi all,
I have always struggled in processing this image and after receiving help from Morkel, this is my repost. Thanks Morkel for your help.
What I did was the following:
I made a duplicate of the layer: cmd J
Added a luminosity mask: alt+cmd+2
Went to curves and changed the blend mode to multiply
Added strong contrast to the basic mid tones and in both layers adjusted the opacity sliders to obtain the affect I wanted.
What do you think of the repost?
With many thanks,
Mark.
113367

[Ken Watkins]

Mark,

This is even better, wonderful stuff:cheers::cheers::cheers:

[LauraDyer]

Great stuff Mark, the pose is wonderful, and of course the detail at 1/25 ! Great help from Morkel too, illl be having a look at that sticky too :)

[Rachel Hollander]

Mark - rp is even better. Thanks for the explanation on ss and we've all been there :S3:.

Rachel

[Steve Uffman]

Mark, looks like a award winner to me....last repost does it....will have to look at some of those stickies...and what a sad story...

[Morkel Erasmus]

Your repost does the trick, Mark! Just a nudge in the right direction was needed, as they say...:bg3::cheers:

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image and your RP takes this over the top
TFS

PS , Instead of trapping leopard , I guess paying for goat will be cheaper

[Dumay de Boulle]

Sad story, I like Morkels repost with color and a image with a huge amount of appeal. IQ seems to be lacking slightly maybe due to low SS. Im sure a higher ISO would have solved that issue but when things happen very quickly as in wildlife photography these things happen.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

I remember seeing this image, definitely one of the best leopard poses I have seen to date. I like your repost, looks great. Sad story Mark, pity the leopard didn't kill the farmer instead:bg3:

[Mark Wiseman]

Thank you for your comments Ken, Laura, Rachel, Steve, Morkel, Dumay and Vivaldo, your comments are truly appreciated.
It is a sad story and really does question the integrity of state conservation bodies and there workings. For a transfrontier park you would think that communication would be better and Harshad's suggestion, I feel, is by far the best way to approach the matter as long as the farmers practise wildlife friendly faming methods when bordering national parks.
Best wishes,
Mark.