A Prince cannot out-compete the King

This was a very interesting sighting and definitely one that I will remember for a while. Myself and my tracker were looking for leopard. We set out on an afternoon drive, about 45 minutes in, my trackers brought us to a halt as he found “fresh male leopard tracks.” We jumped out and had a look around, followed the tracks until we decide, ok it’s now time to fetch the rifle because he wasn’t too far but the vegetation was getting thicker and thicker as we approached a drainage line. Ten to fifteen minutes later, after following tracks over termite mounds, through drainage lines, finding urine and dung we suddenly spot him. He has just settled down to groom his coat. We then pulled back, left quietly and fetched the vehicle.

That afternoon we followed this young male leopard and enjoyed being in his presence, I took the opportunity to try out the new company Sigma 100-400 lens. He quickly shot up a dead Marula tree. There he used the tree for some height advantage and noticed something in the distance. In a quick flash he was down and running in that direction. As soon as we approached, we found another leopard, but this time a mature dominant male feasting on a Warthog kill behind a termite mound.

This young male leopard was quite impatient and barged in only to be chased away. He retreated about 20 meters and sat and waited. This is where I got this beautiful photograph of him with the sun slowly setting in the background as the day is drawn to a close.

Equipment Used

• Camera – Canon 7D mk ii
• Lens and Focal length – Sigma 100 – 400 f5-6.3 DG OS HSM at 269 mm

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO – 1600
• Aperture – f6,3
• Shutter – 1/640

Editing used on this image

With the sunlight slowly starting to set in the background I tried to capture the best scene in which I saw, so I tried not to edit or interfere with the shot too much as I wanted to keep that beautiful lighting which makes the photo. Only thing that I did was increase a little exposure and highlights to bring out the subject to add a little contrast with the background afternoon glow of that orange light. Thanks to this new 100 – 400 mm lens the capturing of this exquisite photograph was made possible.