Annoyed with a great number of thorns getting in the way and fed up with a persistent swarm of bees, this little leopard gave up the meal his mom skilfully hanged in a tall bush and dropped to the ground. Nested among tall grasses, he tried to rid himself of the pests and gave us an opportunity to capture the moment. Image taken at 7 am, close to Polentswa camp on the Botswana side of the Kalahari.
Not an easy frame to process, too much vegetation and those grass stalks were rather bright and bothersome. But the vivid morning sunlight was glorious and the sighting special, it made me try think of ways to possess the scene and try preserve it somehow. No special effects during PP work aside from a slight vignette achieved by dropping exposure. Otherwise, the usual: LR and PSCC, curves, levels, my workflow is so basic it is embarrassing
Nikon D5
Nikon 500 F4
ISO 2500
F6.3
1/1250s
I welcome any suggestions and critique. Really appreciate your time to view and comment, thank you.
Well timed capture and I like what you have done with the vignette. You say a slight vignette was applied only so I'm guessing there was a 'spotlight' effect from the light here which you have just enhanced a little. I like the tongue out. And the raised tail suggesting playfulness. I probably would have processed the cub a little lighter than you have here but the rest is wonderful and always so refreshing to see a different treatment. Keep them coming!
Hi Gabriela -- Loved the spotlight effect and the eye contact. At first glance it looks quite a lot of vignetting but can understand you have achieved that effect on the field . The raised tail tip looks a bit odd ( soft and blurred ). Colours look good , just i might reduce the yellows ever so slightly , of course personal choice . nicely done.
Hi Gabriela - What a cute pose! I think the vignette is too strong. I thought upon viewing the thumbnail and image that you shot this at night and lit the leopard with a spot with red filter. I like it but for me, it just doesn't portray the early morning feel you describe in the opening. If you want to shoot me the raw, I'll take a look and see if I have other suggestions for pp.
Don't really know what else to do with this, other than a stronger vignette or no vignette at all. I'll send it to you with pleasure Rachel
Haseeb, the raised tail is blurred I am afraid, a matter of DoF. I have nicer and cleaner images of this little one but took it as a challenge, thought I'd have a play and see what happens.
Err...maybe I must stop playing with leopards and find a lion or something Many thanks everyone, I'll be back:)
Beautiful Gabriela,personally I like the spotlight effect,difficult to appraise the colours as I know so little about your light in Africa. A real treat to see your capture of this young leopard tongue and tail both work for me and add to the image
Thanks for sharing ha ha fella is so cool, this must have been magical to actually see
Hi Gabriela, I quiet like the idea and approach you have taken here. Agree with the above that maybe the Vignette can be reduced a bit as the image looks a tad on the darker side.
TFS. Keep em coming.
Loving the tongue poke and catchlit eyes here Gabriela and agree with Rachel that the thumbnail looked like a night scene with the colours a tad warm for the time, definitely worth a PP revisit, but like your thought process here.
I sent Rachel a little video of this sighting, taken with my cellphone. The little one is up in the bush attempting to get to the kill which mom tried to hide. Unfortunately the kill - or whatever was left of it - got stuck on the outside, so not easily accessible. Not so exciting to watch because all you can see is the tail of the little leopard - I only took this to remember the amazing light. It is a mix of gold and red, so warm and so beautiful, a pity I could not reproduce it here as I had to add the vignette to conceal those grasses. Will try to process another image and post it, just for interest' sake
Had Enough...
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