“Focused. Intelligent. Motivated.“

While out on Safari my best friend, tracker Dollen, spotted some leopard tracks going up the road. We climbed off the vehicle to have a closer look and to make sure in which direction they were heading in.

We got back on the vehicle and continued our journey when we spotted a Steenbok on the right side of the road, browsing away. All of a sudden, my one guest said “What is that?” As we turned to our left, there she was - a beautiful leopardess - busy stalking the Steenbok. She was about to go for it but the Steenbok heard her and bolted away.

We followed her into the bush and she went to go and rest on top of a termite mound. The light was perfect for this shot as it was late in the afternoon which meant soft light! She moved around a bit until she eventually found the perfect spot and stayed in that position for a while and that’s when I got this amazing picture!

Equipment Used

Camera – Canon 600D

Lens and focal length – Sigma 150 – 600mm; f/5-6.3 DG OS

Settings used to capture this image

ISO – 800 as there was still a lot of light coming from behind us even though there were a few clouds.

Aperture of f-5. I shot at a low aperture because I only wanted the young leopardess’ face to be in focus as the eyes would draw attention to them.

1/200 shutter speed, which is a low shutter because my camera can’t handle low light well and if I lifted the ISO more in order to get my shutter higher, my picture would have been very grainy, so rather than doing that, I supported my camera on my door so it is a steady shot.

Editing used on this image

I wanted to lighten up the image a bit more, so I lifted highlights a bit and pushed whites up and took blacks down witch doesn’t only make your picture lighter but also adds contrast.