Pondering

[Steve Kaluski]

This is a female Leopard who was watching two of her young cubs, (approximately three months old) playing below. What we had not appreciate was that she was also listening to the oncoming noises of four hyenas who shortly arrived. Taken early in the morning, just before 7.00am, the strong sun just lit the who canopy up in parts, creating a real saturation of colours in parts.

Brought a bit more colour to the LHS in the sky, dropped the saturation a fraction, likewise on the subject, highlights on the arm were not blown, just a little hot, added a bit more tone to the bow, no more image below.

Thanks for the previous comments.

Cheers
Steve

Subject: Female leopard (Panthera pardus)
Location: Botswana, Chief camp
Camera: Canon MKIV
Lens: 500f/4 HH
Exposure: 1/500s at f/5.6sec ISO1000 +0.33 EV Comp

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Superb detail and awesome dreamy look of the leopard. Colors look real nice and I like the BG. Comp is quiet perfect. Great sighting Steve. Hope u got some images of the cubs :-)

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Steve - great detail as usual. I don't mind the tightness here, makes it a more intimate image. I do find the bg competing with the subject though and my eye drawn to the urc. I wonder if desaturating the bg more would give more emphasis to the leopard. I hope she was able to keep her cubs safe. Chief's is a great place.

TFS,
Rachel

[peter delaney]

Hi Steve

Nice image but I find the LHS of image pulling my eye away from the subject. Would suggest a Sq crop from were the branch becomes OOF. And maybe desaturate the colors in BKG. The saturation of the leopard is on the warmish side but that is a personal taste.

TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice pose and excellent techs Steve, as usual.
I agree with Peter, slice some off the LHS. The bokeh is beautiful and the rich colours work for me, though I wish (in an ideal world) that some of the light hitting the elbow was hitting the face .

[Loi Nguyen]

Steve, love the warm colors and the detail/sharpness. My initial reaction is like Rachel, Morkel, and Peter above (so us 3 vs. you 1) regarding the brightness of the LHS drawing my eye away. Peter's suggestion a square crop is a good one, or I'd go for something like a 4:3 if you don't want a square crop. TFS. Loi

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Steve,

Love the dreamy relaxed pose you have captured here, and I am very curious to find out - perhaps see?- what happened when the hyaenas arrived. The position of the leopard's ear is perhaps an indication that she was listening to the sounds you are describing-would love to know what she did next, e.g. whether she took the cubs to safety. Techs are spot-on as usual, highlights mentioned not too hot in my opinion, I particularly like the warmth of the image overall and that "explosion" of colour in the BG. Initially I thought of a tighter crop but then changed my mind - this beauty needs that space she is looking into. Very evocative image, and as usual, you thought of just about everything when processing, which leaves me with little to say except that I really, really like this very much.

Warmest regards,

[BenBotha]

Leopards are just very photogenic, obviously the photographer has to be up to standard, as it is with this photo.

I like the mood, sharpness and composition. The LHS, IMO a little bright and the leopard a little too warm. The whites in the bright light where the leg joins the body appears washed out-on my laptop screen.

Ben

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi folks thanks for swinging by, and good to have thoughts and suggestions and obviously in parts, a general consensus.

Peter, nice to see you commenting, I tried a square crop, however for me there wasn't enough image content below to get a happy balance, however please feel free to post your suggestion. I have therefore gone for a 5x4 format which may address some of the feedback, likewise the Saturation albeit -10, plus -10 magenta from the yellow.

though I wish (in an ideal world) that some of the light hitting the elbow was hitting the face

Totally agree Morkel/Ben, there is tone in there Ben, just not enough, but we all know what it's like balancing light when shooting up in the canopy, but that is not an excuse.

Perhaps in the future there could be some better opportunities in the pipeline, but you have to take what you can, especially as Ben mentioned, these subjects are so photogenic, you guys, and ladies in SA, are oh so lucky.

Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Steve - rp looks good to me. I might have reduced the sat of the bg more but that's all personal taste. I hope you do have some better opportunities in the future.

Rachel

[Dvir Barkay]

Really nice shot, I love the great detail in the leopard and those beautiful eyes.

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi STeve,

like this pose very much, could be me waiting for an animal to show up
I just adore your details and your how to to achieve this.
Peter had some great suggestions, also Rachel, would do that as well. Certainly those comments found a spot on a the side of my screen on a post it!

Have a nice eve

Ciao
Anette

[edwardselfe]

Yes very nice - prefer the composition of the rp but completely see what you were doing with the original. As always, details and sharpening perfect.
Ed

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Steve,
very late on this one, like this dreamy look of the beast, just a bigger kitty cat in this frame.
Besides the normal IQ, i like the color and tones of OP, RP is not enough for me,would go for even more color in BG.
But the comp is working better in RP, so well done…….
Not sure but i would go for more tonal variation in the lighter parts of the cat, to make it more pop.But that is just me.

Regarding burnt highlights, i think not easy to judge from a laptop compared to a calibrated screen like some of us have…. So Ben get yourself a proper screen and you are good to go , highlights does not look burnt for me.

TFS Andreas