Black Panther

[Mrudul Godbole]

Photographed this on 4th July in Kabini. From the same sighting as posted by Sabyasachi earlier. Since the sighting for around 20-25 minutes, it gave me sometime to try different compositions. Posting this vertical composition when it got up and was ready to leave. He gave us one glance, where I tried to capture its mesmerizing stare.

Canon 80D, Canon 100-400 L IS USM lens, f7.1, 1/80, ISO 2000, focal length 375, hand held, full frame.

Comments and critiques welcome.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Truly mesmerising stare. Lovely close-up. In case of leopard, inclusion of its long tail is so important; as in this case through vertical composition. Thanks for sharing. SaktiWild

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This pose was the best and this is the image which I really like. Its eyes are really something. It is eyes look way too different than a normal leopard in terms of its appeal. It was a wonderful experience being close to this black leopard for such a long time.

The 100-400 is really suitable for such situations. I had mounted my 400 f2.8 on the tripod on the full frame 1DXII. In a full frame, it was wide. At 560mm, I was able to get the tight verticals, but was needing time to compose. With the 100-400, it is so easy to move/compose and click. People using long telephoto lenses often forget this.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Shyamala Kumar]

Lovely close up.What a lovely velvety coat and mesmerizing stare.All nicely captured.Thanks for sharing

[Debasis Bose]

Amazing sighting that any wildlife lover can dream of, lovely composition.

[Dheerendra Singh]

Great sighting.amazing.

[Jitendra Katre]

Truly amazing, it has eyes that can hypnotize the viewer. Nicely shot. Liked the vertical composition..