Descending Leopard

[Stephen Earle]

1D MKIV
70-200 2.8 IS + 1.4 conv.
ISO 2000
F 4
1/125

Sabi Sand Reserve, South Africa

[Bhushan Dalvi]

Stephen, great use of light. The stare is awesome and I like the composition too.

[Harshad Barve]

Oh Boy , You gotta love that stare , Super shot
TFS

[Steve Kaluski]

I really like the composition and stare here Stephen, sadly the hi ISO has let the image down for me. I guess a spot light was used here, something I am never too sure on and how it affects the animal?

TFS
Steve

[Ken Watkins]

You have a very interesting viewpoint here, the slight noise does not bother me, although I think you may be able to rectify it. The use of a spotlight is much more preferable to the animal than flash.

[Marc Mol]

I particularly like the fact that subtle use of the spotlight and not flash was used here to very good effect Stephen, VWD.
Great pose also.
TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Stephen - well done with the spot. Really like the comp.

TFS,
Rachel

[Stephen Earle]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Personally I'm quite happy with the noise performance of the MKIV here. As to the spotlight... well, I've photographed leopards for many a year using spotlights and haven't seen any evidence that it harms them in any way. In the Sabi Sand leopards are potographed in this manner on a daily basis and there's so many of them now that we have seen up to nine different individuals in a day. Maybe they are happy to trade a poacher and hunter free environment for the attention of us photographers hey.;)

[Ken Watkins]

Maybe they are happy to trade a poacher and hunter free environment for the attention of us photographers hey.;)

I could not agree more with your comments

[subramanya_ck]

I loved this...