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I love it Rachel. It reminds me of my last pic of the leopard high up in the branches. From a 'clinical clean' pov it's not perfect but somehow it feels right for this expert in stealth techniques. Nice one!
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I think this is one of those shots that is an excellent quality illustration of the habitat and would work very well as part of a photo essay or AV presentation. Although it does not have enough 'focus' as a standalone picture it would still be a keeper for me.
Photographically I would be tempted to experiment with cropping out the heavy vertical of the shrub top right and maybe even the edge of green on the top edge leaving only the leoard and grass. I see you have alread cropped 40% (is that 40% linear?) and this would reduce the number of elements in the picture with the textrue in the grass masking any noise.
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Thanks everyone for the honest comments and the crop suggestions. With no more room on the left, cropping out the tree is a no go for me - too much cropping and pixel bashing.
Thanks again,
Rachel
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Wildlife Moderator
Hi Rachel, I know where your going on this and I too might have gone even tighter on the pano crop eliminating the darker BKG and retaining only the sea of grass as per Anette's thoughts. Obviously you know the file and how much of a crop this is, so respect your thoughts about px bashing. I might just look at the WB, going slightly cooler and a toggle between the Greens & Yellow in HSL I think provides a cleaner, fresher look and perhaps a closer time of day. Didn't go back to any files, just a gut feeling????
TFS
Steve
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Hi Rachel you are brave to post this !!
Funny how different are the reactions with shots like this , i just like idea behind it but the image does not have the potential for something like this i think. If you have gone wide open and have a smaller DOF would have worked better i think.
Getting rid of the BKG would also help , but what is poking me in the eye are the more or less blown looking HL in the fur . If you try to leave them completely alone during the process and have rather flat tones in the light half of the image , could help with the camouflage , just a thought from side .
TFS Andreas
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Hello Rachel
Having read the comments, don't know how much more I can add. If you don't want to crop any more perhaps you could lighten the dark trees/bushes in the background...for me it is too big a contrast jump from the lovely grasses?
What the shot does show is the wonderful camouflage of this fabulous animal and I like the shot which shows the very well.
Kind regards, Charleen
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Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator
Hello Rachel,
Anette stole my line, I was also going to ask "where is the leopard?"
Been waiting to get home and comment, a bit late but here it is:
I was thinking late this afternoon after viewing your image once again...just how many times did I drive past a leopard in the local reserves, or in the KTP, without seeing it? Your image - apart from illustrating the elusiveness of this beautiful creature - is an account of an instance where the subject is barely there, cautious, perhaps stalking...He is "Mr Camouflage", and whatever motivates you to share this image is fine with me because right now all I want is a glimpse of my favourite characters Rosetta - also known as Safran, and her cub, even though I have recently been told Mom was seen mating...meaning her lovely, lively cub Naledi is no longer around.
I believe we all interpret images differently and our thoughts/conclusions are affected to a great degree by our experiences. Or lack of them. I hardly looked at the crop/colour/sharpness/tonality here, by the way it all seems fine to me, maybe this is because the image/sighting itself satisfies my passion for seeing and narrating about the species. I have no set of rules, an image either inspires me or not. Your post has provided the idea which seized me and made me want to go on searching for my leopards, I hope I find them soon...
Thank you for sharing Rachel, I honestly enjoyed viewing.
Warmest regards,
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Thanks everyone, interesting thoughts and observations by all.
Rachel
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Late to this one Rachel - still a bit swamped but clawing my way through the mire 
I have to agree that as an illustration of this stealthy quality it is a good image to use in a sequence, AV or essay type presentation. As a standalone it doesn't really start my photographic engine, but I also like how you keep trying things in the field and in PP and are not timid to show them and get feedback. We all can take a page from that book - lest we become formulaic and stagnate in our creativity.
My initial thought was also to crop from top to remove the dark band but as Steve said - your file and you need to be comfortable with how much is cropped away.
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Love the inclusion of habitat here Rachel, would like to see him less central, and go for a crop with the RHS vegetation out, removing the top dark band is also another alternative as mentioned.
TFS
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Thanks Morkel and Marc