Well after looking through all my pictures, I am not sure this is the best, but it was one of my wifes favorites, therefore I will submit it. :)
This is by far my favorite animal. The snow leopard. So beautiful and powerful. It represents a lot to me. Shot this at the Cleveland Zoo and the keeper had just happened to walk in with food, and I took a few and captured this expression. Only two things I didn't like was the tongue out and the slight glare on the right ear. I tried cropping it tighter but it just didn't look right to me. I know it won't compare with a lot of the shots that are going in, but I hope everyone at least likes the expression and look on the leopards face.
Adjustments:
Shot in Raw
Sharpened, Curves, Brightness
Used Photomatix and tonemapped.
In Jpeg
USM, Brightness & Contrast, Curves, Channel Mixer to convert to B&W. Dodge & Burn on face, Neat Image, Cropped, Add Border, Resize, Sharpen, Save for Web
Statistics
Place: 16 out of 484 Avg (all users): 6.9030 Avg (commenters): 8.0952 Avg (participants): 6.8047 Avg (non-participants): 7.1471 Views since voting: 6444 Views during voting: 407 Votes: 237 Comments: 31 Favorites: 21 (view)
Great entry, Sean. This is beautiful! Clearly, the things that bothered you about this didn't bother the voters :-) Congratulations on the well-deserved great placement and score.
This is easily my favorite photo for the challenge. I have a thing for big cats to begin with... and this photo just reinforces why. The grace and majesty is so evident is this simple pose. The lighting and soft tones are fantastic...I hope this finishes well for you.
I love the lighting on the face. The black and white contrasts are great too. Just something seems a little off on the right ear edge - like some detail was lost.
NIce capture and lighting. They eye is really nice. the Processing isn't very strong and I get really distracted by the bleached out fur on both the chin and around the ear. Also, This should have been in colour without a doubt in my mind. Good Luck. 5.
Love the textures and the background. Excellent composition. I'd like to see the frame line a few pixels closer to the edge, but that's a nit pick. Very nice.
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