Leopard Cub

[Brendon Cremer]

A Leopard Cub perched up in a tree at sunset, we spent about 3 hours with this young cub and its mother as they lay and moved around in this tree, it was truely great to have the time to actually work a scene and capture it from all angles and under different lighting conditions.

Machaba Camp, Khwai, Botswana

Camera

NIKON D800

Focal Length

400mm

Shutter

1/200 s

Aperture

f/5.6

ISO/Film
Speedlight

320
-1 EV

[Anil Skumar]

beautiful lighting and liked the way its framed. congrats.

[Marc Mol]

Exquisite BG colour here Brendon, what actually is behind giving this colour? I like how the almost V shape tree frames the cub nicely, good use of -EV for the lighting as well.
To think you had 3 hrs in this situation is just a dream come true!

Was this with a 200-400VR?


TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Brendon - It was great meeting up with you and I am so glad to see you posting. What a cute cub with huge eyes. On a travel netbook so won't comment on color or contrast but looks like great sunset colors brought out with the negative EV. Well done and looking forward to more.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hey Brendon, was our meeting that 'pressurised', LOL .
Great to have you back in the saddle again, albeit fleeting, and were are hoping a few others may now join the group in the coming weeks too .

Great light and nicely 'flashed' too, love the BKG colours, cracking. My only thought was perhaps to loose a bit off the RHS as the tree is perhaps a tad dominant, taking some off I think will help balance the comp, WDYT? Think we need some time next time to work on some flash stuff, but glad we could reciprocate with Hilton.

Look forward to more in the coming weeks and will be in touch about other stuff.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dear Brendon,

Been looking forward to seeing again one of your leopards for some time now, very happy to discover this post tonight and thought it had to be you when I saw the vibrant colours in the thumbnail

You know how much I love leopards, it gives me joy just looking at this wonderful capture of a lonely and surprised little cub - he must have been waiting for mom to return from a hunt. Unbelievably beautiful sunset in the BG, image well processed and presented as always, not sure about cropping on the RHS because you might have to crop from the top as well and I really like those OOF branches, they give context. I really like the cub in his "sheltered" little spot, makes my heart melt a little and I congratulate you for your thoughtful capture as well as processing - welcome back Brendon, we've missed you on BPN

Warmest regards,

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is just lovely bud. Glad to have you posting again. I like the subdued flash here as it's easy to overcook it in these settings.

[Carl Walker]

Lovely colour and flash work on the cub Brendon. If anything I might personally take some off the RHS.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brendon , really neat shot with great colors in the BG and for flash photography just the right amount of visible flash.
I like the overall comp , but would try to loose the yellow area on bottom and see how that looks.It will look tight , but……..

Nice work , TFS Andreas

[Andre Pretorius]

Hi Brendon

Love the Sky, flash and little cat up there.

He looks a bit nervous looking at you with those BIG eyes; where is Mom?

Stunning capture!

[Brendon Cremer]

Thanks very much all, much appreciated. The mother was lying there with the cub and then moved up the tree into one of the higher branches.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brendon thought i give it a shot for getting more detail and some slight tonal and colors adjustments , as always matter of taste

WDYT ?

Cheers Andreas

[Marc Mol]

Exquisite BG colour here Brendon, what actually is behind giving this colour?

Was this with a 200-400VR?


TFS

Should clarify here, I understand it's the setting sun, but what's the actual mixed array of colour here Brendon? And 200-400VR??

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Brendon, Too beautiful for words. Skillful use of flash. Did you need to work on the eyes at all?

[Brendon Cremer]

Thanks very much all and sorry for the delay reply.

Andreas thanks for your RP, i do feel the tone is now a little light for my liking and for the scene, but as we all know this is very subjective, thanks for taking the time to do a RP in any case.

Marc, if i understand you correctly, the colour is indeed from the setting suns light shining up on some dark clouds will a little sky, so the orange is the bottom of the clouds from the sun the darker aras are the clouds where there is less sun shine and the lighter patches are sky. Yes indeed it was shot with the 200-400 VR II

Arthur thanks for the great comment, Yes unfortunately the flash was not far enough off the camera so there was a slight green tinge to the eyes.

[Steve Kaluski]

Yes unfortunately the flsh was not far enough off the camera so there was a slight green tinge to the eyes.

Hilton kept that secret of using 'fish' in the shot, LOL, I'll correct it for you Brendon.

[Loi Nguyen]

Exquisite image Brendon and very good use of flash. This is something I would need to learn. I prefer your Op as it is more subtle use of the flash and as you said more closely resembles the scene that you saw with your own eyes. Often time, we spend too much time behind the viewfinder and then forget what the real scene looks like when we are back home working the image. I too feel the tree trunk on the right hand side a bit too dominant, but again it is a matter of personal preference. TFS. Loi