Leopard Going Up!

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 1dmk3, 70-200mmf2.8is lens, handheld from vehicle. S/s 1000s at f5.6, iso 800, +0.33 Exp comp, Eval metering, Ai Servo. Cropped from 10 to 6mp. Focal length 70mm. Subject dist 21m. Processed in ACR and CS5, nothing cloned. Taken on slightly cloudy late morning. Location Savuti camp, 4 Dec 2010, 08h28am. The female leopard jumped up into this ebony tree in order to rest in the branches higher up. I managed a series of images, this was perhaps the best one. I liked the straight tail position. I tried to place the cat against the dark tree trunk rather than the bright sky. I will only be around tomorrow to respond to comments.
All C and C welcome
Cheers
Grant

[Hilary Hann]

Grant, I love the pose here, with the tail straight out and the front paw not touching the trunk. Such amazing cats and you've captured the strength and climbing ability well, not a branch in sight to help with the climb. The sky is a bit of a pain, but often what has to be dealt with in these cases.

[Marc Mol]

Love the action depicted here especially with the Leopard caught mid leap, well done.
As Hilary has mentioned the BG sky is quite harsh, took the liberty of a repost here by using a Luminosity mask in CS5, warmed up the colours a tad and brought in a touch of sky via a selective mask grad ND filter in Nik Color Efix pro3.
Let me know if this suits?

[Harshad Barve]

what an incredible pose by Leo here , gotta love this
TFS

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Marc, thanks for taking the time to work on the repost. I will try emulate what you have done with the sky for sure, that looks much better than on my OP. Hilary and Harshad, thanks for the comments, the power of these cats is incredible, as you pointed out Hilary, only her two back paws are making contact with the tree trunk
Cheers
Grant

[Ken Watkins]

Grant,

This does not work for me.

It might be interesting to see but in this instance you have the problem of the sky, the lack of detail in the head together with the bush merging with it. If it had been carrying prey then that would have een a different story.

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - I too like the pose with the body stretched out, the bit of space between the paw and the tree and the tail out straight. Quick action well captured. Marc's repost improves the sky but the tree seems to have a magenta cast. I would combine his sky with your OP.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grant, certainly this image is away from what we have seen from you recently and good to see some variety. Interesting POV as it's caught in mid stride jumping up, almost at full stretch, does the tail act as a counterbalance?

I feel Marc's repost has certainly helped in key areas where it needed it.

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

this is very hard to nail, Grant, and you did fabulously...love the tail too!

Marc's repost certainly has helped "pop" the image a bit more!