Leopard from Jhalana Reserve

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Dear all,
I am sorry for my absence from the esteemed forum, primarily due to lack of opportunity to shoot and due to heavy work load. I finally got a break and visited a newly opened wildlife reserve called JHALANA leopard reserve, near JAIPUR, Rajasthan, India. Its a smallish forest reserve with some 20 to 25 resident leopards. A pristine forest with game drives in morning and evening in open top Gypsy 4X4s.
We were lucky to spot a couple of leopards on my first game drive there on 6th Oct.
I wasn't sure of the place so carried just the 5D IV and 100-400 II.
Light was low so had to up that ISO on 5D IV.
1/500
f/5.6
ISO 6400
Hand held

[John Mack]

Nice pose from the leopard and the the tree is nice. The image quality looks great for the high ISO.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Sanjeev - It's great that you got to see the leopards. I like the pose and the light green of the bg. That tail is huge! The tail and hindquarters of the leopard seem to have more detail and better tones than the face and head which seem a little flat. If it were mine I would try to bring it up a bit.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Sanjeev, great to see you pushing the 5D it can within reason take it, but I'm not sure how far I would like to push it, but you do have great Dynamic range and plenty to play with. I think you did well on the techs and at 400mm you were reasonably close, perhaps not far off posting full frame? Personally I would remove the two branches LHS in the BKG, especially the one above the head. Getting some more colour separation between background and subject helps and some contrast here also defines more. Not sure about the reddy/orange colour of the coat, looks a bit off, is it? With the shutter going off then having the head facing you would I feel have been better, rather than looking behind you. Framing/comp works for me.

I'll pop a RP over to you, see what you think.

Hope to see more.

TFS
Steve

[haseeb badar]

Hi Doc -- Nice to have you back and I too have heard a lot of Jhalna , must have been a good experience for you ? And how were the sightings and crowd ?

Coming to the image , I really liked the eyes and the tail, Leopard on tree is what I love to see. 5D can handle 8k .

Not sure abt the colour , might be because of the winter coat ? I also think that the twigs behind its head should go away , not ideal IMO. A bit more punch will really help this one. I hope you do post a RP of your own or the one by Steve, helps to grasp the things better.

Nice one. TFS !

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Haseeb. Thanks for the comments. Jhalana is a 20 square km park with 3 routes out of which 2 are open to game drives, It is 10km from Jaipur and really close. Its remarkable that they has conserved that area despite it being next to an industrial area. Its not too crowded. max 6-8 Gypsies at a time is what I saw. Sightings are good due to 20 odd leopards in a small area. Its is quiet thick forest so light was an issue. I wish i had carried my 500mm.
Will RP soon.

[Basil Dardagan]

Its a beautiful image of a beautiful cat and sounds like a fascinating area. I agree that eye contact would have improved the image