Queen of the Rocks

This female leopard is making the most out of her beautiful territory. She got given a massive part of her mother’s territory and has been exploring some good spots where she might potentially have her first litter of cubs.

These massive rocks are also a safe spot for her to go and rest for the day and she even has some nice shade from a big Marula tree. We were very lucky that she decided to rest on the edge of the rock where we could still see her as it is very high up. She started grooming and this made for a great photo of her.

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 – I used 800 because she was in the shade but it was difficult as there was a lot of light coming from behind her.
• Aperture of f- 6.3 - That’s the lowest I could go with my lens at 553mm and I got the face in focus and all the leaves are out of focus around her.
• 1/200 shutter speed – The shutter was slow because I needed her face to be brighter and I suported my lens on my door.

Editing used on this image

I pushed my Shadows up and dropped the Blacks then I gave it a bit of Vignetting so the bright light from the side evens out. I pushed some Contrast but only with +5.