Gotta meet the challenge with this one - "leopard" is in the challenge details...
This is the clouded leopard that lives at the San Antonio Zoo. Same one that SandyP shot for the Free Study. I'm pretty impressed with this particular shot (I'm easily impressed) because it was shot handheld with the 70-200 which I have trouble hand-holding still enough. To compensate for the lighting (it's not very bright in there) I was using an ISO of 1250. This is also shot through not very clean glass. (The glass of the cage, not the glass of the lens.)
Post processing: let CS pick the RAW conversion; levels, curves, color balance and hue/sat to remove the blue caused by the glass, a bit of Neat Image, sharpening, resize.
Statistics
Place: 12 out of 175 Avg (all users): 6.6506 Avg (commenters): 8.1765 Avg (participants): 6.4615 Avg (non-participants): 6.7174 Views since voting: 1898 Views during voting: 366 Votes: 249 Comments: 44 Favorites: 6 (view)
This Clouded Leopard looks so different from the Amur Leopards that I take pictures of in the local wildlife park. Very different face shape, and markings.
Yeah, this was definitely the right one. I love Theda's dreaminess, but this one really engages the viewer - really demands your attention, and high vote!
Great shot Deb, I don;t know how I missed seeing this result, it is a truly excellent shot and congrats on your second best score ever!! The only thing I can think of that may have improved the shot would have been a tighter crop to fill the frame with spots. Just a suggestion, truly outstanding!
WOW! This is excellent! This is the type of shot I aspire to get. I love taking shots of the animals. Trying to get through that glass is mighty annoying. LOL. At the Philly zoo, between the low light conditions and the dirty glass it is a lesson in frustration most times. I usually take about 400 shots when we go to the zoo. At most maybe 30 come out decent (not good, but decent). Out of those 30, I might get 3 or 4 that are good. The sharpness on this is amazing. The colors are phenomenal.
Hey Deb, Congratulations on coming so close to one of your goals. I did my best to get this in the top 10. I noticed those trolls didn't bother to leave a comment. You'd probably have made it without them. That sucks!
Really like how he's looking right into the camera. I think this is a very nice shot that stands well on it's own - even outside of the challenge (but does fit the challenge purrrfectly!)
Jeeeeeeeez, that's a a photogenic kitty!!! The piercing eye contact makes this such an outstanding photo!!! The composition of his pose is perfect too! I just love this photo! And no matter how many leopards there are -- even without having come across any more, this one has to be the best! Congratulations on an incredible capture!
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