Some of you may remember that on my August 2012 trip I was fortunate to spend extended time photographing a mother leopard, Nthombi, and her then 8 month old son who we affectionately called Topsy Turvy because of this image:
One of the things I hoped to do on my trip this year was see these leopards again. We succeeded in seeing both of them, although our ranger did not like the name "Topsy Turvy." In the interim, the cub had been given a proper name, Ntsongwaan. He was a big cub and has grown into a very big, young male as well.
Canon 5D3
300 II
1/640
f5.6
ISO 1600
Beanbag in safari vehicle, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, sharpened in CCPS.
C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,
Rachel
Last edited by Rachel Hollander; 07-07-2014 at 11:34 AM.
Reason: typo
Hi Rachel , i think it is very nice to see individual animals again in the wild and see how they make their life ......... never had the chance to do the same .
Regarding the image - i like the overall tone/contrast and colors a lot , you have great detail and sharpness , good job in PP , i think the flat light has helped for easy editing .
The crop is ok but i would like to see the whole cat in the frame and the foot is a bit tight to the bottom for my liking. Not knowing if you have anything left , but feel that is all you have in the frame , right ?
But no big deal , just the very nice technical image , makes this work for me.
Hello, crisp and sharp image!
Would have loved to see more of the leopard from the left and some more space over the head maybe, just my two cents :) The detail is just incredible, I love my 300 2.8 II too
This is very beautiful, Rachel. I am so pleased to see such great IQ at 1/640s - I am saying this because I seem to always aim for 1/1000s even though my subject is hardly moving or for fear that the subject will suddenly take off. Nice detail here and I so like that concentration on the leopard's face, the stare - I wonder what she was looking at? The pink and green grasses bring some lovely softness to this image, in terms of crop I was tempted at first to suggest that you take off a bit from the RHS but then changed my mind, this girl needs her space.
Thanks Andreas, Aditya and Gabriela. I should have said this was ff. We had first seen him on the top of the riverbank and then circled round to find him when he came down. He stopped for just a few minutes on this elevated sand bank in the riverbed to clean himself and then crossed over to some thick brush to have a nap out of sight of everyone. We were shooting from the riverbed and had to shoot between several large tufts of grass. This opening was pretty much the only way to get him unobstructed and even then depending on his head position there could be grass across the face. I have other images that I took as verticals.
I think something like this needs either a tighter perspective (portrait), or, you go slightly wider to get more space all round to give the subject room to breathe and I feel this needs it. For me it's too tight at the foot & to the LHS, 70-200 would have been ideal. Good to have no vegetation or grasses over the face, good vehicle positioning. Techs look fine, nice balance. Grasses look spot on, with the two tone colours.
Thanks Steve and Sanjeev. Steve - I've got some verticals. I have to look if I shot any wider ones with the 7D and 70-200 but I sort of remember us dealing with various foliage issues and repositioning a couple of times for us all to have clear shots.
Gabriela - I should have been clearer in my intro. This is the male cub who at the time this image was captured was about 30 months old.
Hi Rachel, great that you managed to see this wonderful looking leopard again, and he sure has grown up, when I look at your link. Although a little tight below, I like the space in the rest of the frame, and well done with your positioning not have any grass across his face.
Glad you found him again, and he sure looks handsome. Good colours, detail and sharpness overall here Rachel.
In hindsight (that exact science we all love so much ) I think you could have included all of the back with less in front, given the direction of his gaze in this frame?
I would probably go for the suggestions for more space but there is so much detail and just because it is my favourite animal it doesn't matter. Also think you have done well here with the grass in terms of getting the colour right. Great stuff Rachel
A fine looking young leopard Rachel. Nice and sharp with lots of detail. The few stray grasses don't bother me but I feel that the RH side of the image (empty space to the right of the leopard) is just a bit too bright and distracts slightly from the subject himself.