Cindy Marple
October 2025 - Asiatic Leopard
Original
About the Image(s)
About: The Asiatic Leopard was a target species for my photo tour in Sri Lanka and we were lucky to have some very good sightings. These leopards are smaller and darker than their African counterparts. This girl emerged from the brush to walk along the (dirt) roadway, we thought she was heading toward a waterhole. She stopped to look at a vehicle that pulled up behind us, giving this nice moment. We went ahead to the next waterhole and waited but she didn’t show up there.
Nikon Z8, 180-600 at 600mm, 1/800 f/6.3 ISO1400 handheld from our open safari vehicle.
Processing: Cropped, Adjusted exposure, used Levels and Dehaze to increase the contrast, Topaz Denoise.
2 comments posted
Cindy, I really like this photo. Your adjustments really pulled out the leopard's beautiful coloring. Nicely done. The slightly anxious, questioning look makes me wonder what it will do next. Is it thinking fight? Or is it thinking flight?
This led me to wonder if a different crop would tell a bigger story. What is the story told if the dark woods on the left is included?
Posted: 10/04/2025 23:33:04
This led me to wonder if a different crop would tell a bigger story. What is the story told if the dark woods on the left is included?
Posted: 10/04/2025 23:33:04
What a gorgeous leopard! I think the strength of the image is how the subject is looking right into the lens - it makes a connection with the viewer; we don't see many leopards in the wild looking into the camera, so great job capturing this moment. Technically I thought you did very good job as well, exposure, balance, DOF, detail, etc. Plus, you captured the subject with a paw off the ground which helps to animate the image. I think this would likely do well in a PSA competition -that said, if I were to make one suggestion in my VF I darkened both the fore and backgrounds slightly to help this image pop - Beautiful shot Cindy. Posted: 10/07/2025 13:55:52