Leopard on the Lookout

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 5Dmk2, Canon 70-200f2.8 IS II, handheld. S/S 1/2500s at f/6.3 (accidentally underexposed whilst shooting -2/3stop), iso 250. In processing, ACR 6 and CS5 for cropping out branches to right and top, added contrast and lightened subject. A well known male leopard in the Linyanti concession (Steve K has some cracking images of him from some years ago), he has been around since late 2005. He was climbing termite mounds to gain height to look out for potential prey when I took this image. 25 July 2011, 15h25pm. A hazy atmosphere from smoke in the air from grassfires helped filter the light.
All C and C welcome
Cheers
Grant

[peter delaney]

Hi Grant

great pose , angle and background.... I know you have had laptop issues.. so not certain on the what you are using at the moment... but there is too much yellow/red saturation to image...

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - majestic pose with a nice clean sky bg. I agree with Peter on the saturation issue. Hopefully, you're getting your laptop sorted.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Grant, you know I love this image, however you also know my thoughts on the colour too.

Hopefully it won't be long before you are back up and running again,firing on all eight cylinders.

TFS
Steve

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Grant this may be slighty over saturated which I like Great to get this leopard on top of this mound, love the blue sky and detail TFS

[Arthur Morris]

Neat behavior. Somewhat harsh light handled nicely. With a bit less head turn away we would have had a better looks at the eye....

[Steve Canuel]

I like the composition of this one. The BG sky color looks really good to me. Would seem to be a little unnerving to have an ambush predator this close with this kind of angle?

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for the comments, Peter, Rachel, Steve, Vivaldo, Artie and Steve C.
I am still working on a sub-par laptop at the moment so the leopard doesnt look at all over saturated to me. However, I shall reprocess with less yellow in it. Artie, I spent twenty minutes with this male and I managed to get quite a few different poses between this termite mound perch and a dead tree he climbed. Steve C, I was in an open vehicle but this cat is habituated to our vehicles and doesnt take any notice, hence he doesn't even usually make eye contact or look at us...
Thanks again for commenting
cheers
Grant

[Grant Atkinson]

Here is a repost, less yellow in the leopard...
cheers
Grant

[Hilary Hann]

This is such a clean composition and the colours are such a strong part of that composition with the blue and the yellow. I like the reduced colour in the leopard re-post but would love to know whether you think that there is a slight colour cast in the termite mound, once you are back on your main computer. But of course, the termite mounds in Botswana will be a different colour to those I'm familiar with so perhaps it is right for the earth you have down there. I'm always comfortable with animal portraits where they aren't looking at the camera as it makes me feel that we photographers are being less intrusive (wishful thinking, I'm sure!)

[Marc Mol]

Would love to have this in my files, a magic stance well framed. Re, saturation, something between the two posts for mine.
Very nice indeed Grant.
TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hope you get your processing tool fixed soon Grant! I'd be happy to bring you some RAM in exchange for bed nights (wink-wink, nudge-nudge ).
Lovely setting, great to be able to get such an 'apparent' low angle beneath the cat, makes him look very imposing.

Some eye contact would have been great but love it all the same. I am also not viewing this from the best monitor at the moment so will have to check colour again at home, though your repost seems fine.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Very nice perspective. The pose is great and the colors look great in the repost. Very nice Grant!

[Andy Biggs]

Cracker image, Grant. Maybe I should have left you with my Macbook Pro a few weeks ago, in an attempt to get you over to the dark side. :-)

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Dumay, Morkel, Andy, Marc and Hilary for taking the time. The Macbook would have been good Andy, does it come with its own set of Nikon D3s bodies
Am still struggling with computers actually, Morkel, RAM sorted but still having software issues...living in the bush does have some drawbacks
Hilary what colour cast do you see in the mound?
thanks again all
Grant