I waited almost 4 hours for this shot. The backlighting wrecked havoc with the exposure. Does anyone have any good ideas how to better post process this rather unique image? First post so I hope I did this correctly.
Thanks,
Eric
I waited almost 4 hours for this shot. The backlighting wrecked havoc with the exposure. Does anyone have any good ideas how to better post process this rather unique image? First post so I hope I did this correctly.
Thanks,
Eric
Big Welcome Eric !!!
It is a unique image and you did well with the exposure, no complaints form my end. Just wish you could have cropped in camera a little different Would love to have more room to the left !!! Cropping from the bottom will make the leopard larger in frame and still give a pleasing fg
Where was this taken? Also try posting the tech info Helpful for suggestions !!!
Did some cropping, curves adjustment for increasing contrast the bumped the blacks/neutrals in selective color. Last a little usm pass.
Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately I couldn't predict exactly where the leopard was going to make its leap. This was with a Canon 1DII and 70-200 2.8is. I had this as wide as I could go and I still wanted to get the tree but not the entire termite mound. There were a number of impala as well as this kudu that the leopard could have leapt upon. I have about 5 shots in the sequence until he lands on the kudus back. Unfortunately for the leopard he picked the largest animal in the group and was flipped up in the air from the kudu's hindquarters. This was in Botswana at Chitabe. Fortunately we also captured the whole sequence on video but that was even trickier for exposure as the leopard went from the relatively dark tree into the bright backlighting.
Regards,
Eric
Hi Eric Imagine that would be the case At least you got the leap and great sitting/waiting !!!
btw for exposure go manual so you don't have to worry about the changing bg providing the animal is in the same light.... if not go Av and compensate like a demon !!!!
This too my mind is a very unique image, I have always been told that Leopard never jump on their prey from a tree, clearly this is not the case.
This behaviour has apparently been seen before as published in 1967 see:
http://www.kats-korner.com/bigcats/leopard.html
Forget the picture count the moment, absolutely amazing.
I think you should show these pictures to some researchers into animal behaviour.
Don't know about African Leopard but the Indian leopards definitely do it. I don't know why people think that they don't jump from the tree.
I think lot of the myths propagated by people can be torn apart by patiently observing their behaviour. It is a wonderful moment to observe. Difficult to capture due to the vegetation around. Congratulations!
Thanks for all the kind replies. At least 4 vehicles came and went viewing the leopard sitting in the tree. No one stayed more than 10 minutes until it was off to see 2 sleeping male lions. I have been patient and rewarded on a number of occassions witnessing 2 leopard kills as well as a 10,000+ wildebeest and zebra crossing in private. I must give credit for this one though to our guide who basically called this 4 hours earlier and when it happened had a smile from ear to ear that was priceless.
I practiced the shot numerous times but my 1D3 wasn't locking in the lens mount so I used the 1D2...I always wonder if the shot would have been any different with the other camera (better or worse).
If anyone is interested I would be happy to post the series till landing on the kudu's back.
Regards,
Eric
Eric,
It would be good if you can post the series.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
I would be most interested to see the remainder.
Thanks everyone, I just got back from a 5 day ophthalmology convention in Atlanta and will try to get the pix up in the next day or two.
Eric
I have included a number of the images from the sequence of the leopard leaping and landing on a large kudu. For the kudu fans, she escaped relatively unscathed, the leopard hungry and the photographers ecstatic but hoping for a different outcome :).
Thanks for looking
3rd in series
4th in series
5th in series
If there is a way to put them all together without having to upload each time please let me know.
Hope you enjoy the series.
Eric
Here is the final image before the leopard was flipped.
Eric,
Thanks for sharing the series. Towards the last image, did you zoom in or did you just pull out the a big crop? I know with such high voltage situations, we tend to forget not only the focal length and other settings but also forget photographing as well. I will say it is not easy shooting with such dense vegetation around. Congratulations! Not many people are blessed with such fabulous natural history moments.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
Thanks, and yes it is just a big crop. This was the last in an action series that lasted about 1 second. I would have loved to zoom in but the action was too quick to permit it and recompose. I was just hoping that the focus was close enough and no vegetation got in the way to grab the focus from my main subject.
Regards,
Eric