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Wildlife IOTW 12/18/1009 Kiran Khanzode
Congratulations Kiran Khanzode
A Leopard Cub
Certainly not the best in terms of lighting, but the image has some other things going for it. Be it Kanha, Corbett , Serengeti or the Mara, photography of leopards is just too tough, I must say...they just don't give you enough time. I saw 5 leopards in this trip, a visual treat for me. Capturing them nicely in the camera was another story... I have been chasing them for a while to get some decent shots. This cub gave me literally 2 seconds on the road and then fled in the direction his mother and sister had gone. It was taken in the mid-day sun ( ~11 am), he came out of a thicket 50 yards in front of us (surrounded by the shrill alarm calls of Langurs and Cheetal which had been ongoing for 5 minutes or so), his mother and sister crossed the road so fast that all I got in my camera was 2 blurry shots. At least, now I knew what distance I had to pre-focus my camera at. This little guy, however, came running out of the bush right behind his family and just hopped on the road and stopped, stared at me and fled. That's it, 2 seconds,....Argh !!!! I hate leopards, no, I don't ! :-). This was a pretty unique sighting considering the forest officials had only seen the mother and these cubs once before (in the season). This little guy's age could be anywhere from 6-12 months. There's a lot of things that could be better in this image, but considering the rarity of a leopard cub, sharing with you all. I just had no time whatsoever to re-adjust any settings.
Techs: EOS 7D, 300 2.8 IS at 2.8, ISO 800, hand-held. PP: Saturation, brightness, some noise reduction, sharpening
My quest for Leopards will continue in the Serengeti.....so, help me God ! :-)
Regards,
Kiran
