Leopard - on the move
by Stephen Kaluski
Another image of Vomba (the young male leopard), a full grown male Leopard in his prime.
As I have mentioned before, some people have hang ups about roads, and yes, in an ideal world it's better shot in a lovely green stretch, but given the choice of photographing a Leopard or not, well I would choose the road. This Leopard was awesome and just out for his afternoon patrol, full of confidence and knew it.
Thanks for either viewing or commenting on the previous image.
Steve
Subject: Leopard (Panthera pardus) male, on patrol, sandy track, mid afternoon
Location: SA
Camera: Canon 1DX
Lens: 200-400f/4 with ext, 560mm
Exposure: 1/1000s at f/5.6 ISO800
Original format: Portrait, crop from the top
Subject distance: 26m
Comments
3 commentsI like a lot about this shot - from the colour palette through to the lighting, pose, and - of course - the contrasting colour and detail on the tongue. The almost complete lack of pupils adds a surreal "other worldly" look to the leopard that is almost spooky! A very nice capture indeed.
I guess I'm one who has a "hang up" about roads and other visible and obvious instances of the "hand of man" in wildlife images. For me, they do detract - both on the image and also to the feeling the image conveys to me. Just being honest - fact of life. As a professional photographer I also think they CAN (not necessarily "do", but "can") have a negative impact on the commercial value of an image.
Cheers...
Brad
Cheers
Steve