Woodland Leopard

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 1DmkIII, Canon 300mm f2.8is, handheld. S/speed 1/250s at f5.6, iso500. Eval meter. Ai Servo. Cropped from 10mp to 8.3mp. Processed in ACR and Photoshop. Location Chitabe, Okavango, 6 August 17h29pm.
The same young leopard that all in all I spent a day and half with, at Chitabe. He was active and alternately moving and resting as it cooled down in the late afternoon. He never spent long in any one place but i managed to get a few frames of him in this pose before he moved again. I lightened some shadow on his body, and darkened a patch of direct sun on his face.
All C and C welcome
cheers
Grant
www.grantatkinson.com

[Ken Watkins]

Grant,

I wonder if the direct sun patch might have given this a different feel, I suppose it depends on how bright it was?

I would take a little of the RHS to make the Leopard less central.

You nearly got all of the tail:) not that the absence of the tip matters to me at all.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grant, you are certainly covering a lot of ground as I have said before, guess towards the end of the year you might not be so free :D

I really am enjoying you wider approach and it is paying off. I can see where Ken is coming from re being a bit central and loosing a bit off the rhs, but I might be tempted to perhaps suggest removing some from the rhs as I really like the trunk leading you in from the rhs. Again, it's all subjective! The light looks spot on, however have you run any NR over the BG? If might it might be worth a go, avoiding the leopard and main trunk, plus a fraction more USM over the leopard. Some nice work coming out.

BTW, leave some options for us next year. ;)

TFS
Steve

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image Grand , thank God people dont find tree on which leopard seating is not DISTRACTING ;)
TFS

[Chantelle Voss]

Fantastic work! Great pose and the sunlight on the left side of the head adds a lot of warmth, also really brings out the eyes. Thanks for sharing!

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - Another great leopard image. I like the tree as a diagonal through the whole image.

TFS,
Rachel

[Sid Garige]

Grant,

like the composition and a lot. Very well captured.

[Grant Atkinson]

Hi All, and thanks for the comments. I will play around with some other crop options on the original image and see what I like best. Since taking this shot I have actually begun to make more use of my 5Dmk2 on the 300f2.8 (which is my longest lens) as the extra 11mpixels easily make up for the 1.3 crop factor on my 1DmkIII, and give me quite a bit more leeway to crop. I then keep the 1DmkIII fitted with a 70-200f2.8. Immediately after taking this shot I was intending to move more to the leopards rhs, and get him in more direct light, but found another vehicle had taken that spot:confused:. Steve, I havent run any NR on this image at all.
Thanks for all the suggestions and for looking
I am heading out on trip later today, visits to BPN will be sporadic for a while...hope to get some more pics out there
cheers
Grant

[Morkel Erasmus]

I too am enjoying the wider approach here Grant! lovely light and colours and pose

I would just crop a tad off the RHS to get the leopard more off-centre and looking towards the LHS. Enjoy your trip!

[Michael Henry]

Grant I love this shot with both the light and the interesting tree to give it a flavor of the habitat. I would personally take off a little off the rhs only because the brush pile there is slightly distracting. Have to love how leopards just completely relax on a tree limb like that.

[Ken Watkins]

Immediately after taking this shot I was intending to move more to the leopards rhs, and get him in more direct light, but found another vehicle had taken that spot
Grant

An all to common problem nowadays in certain areas:)

[Andrew Aveley]

great work here Grant. I tend to favor this comp as is. Love the leading line of the log!