An eye on you always - Leopard

[Deepak Ramani]

Image taken at Kabini. This Leopard club started descending the moment it saw us. Not the sharpest of images, but loved the moment.
Exif: 1/250s, f4, ISO 800. High ISO, but not enough light and did not want to step down to less than 1/250s. Cropped by 20%.
Equipment used: Canon EOS 400D, 300mm f4 IS.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Wow you got the eye nicely. The b/w composition looks nice. Thinking a slight less on the left would have been good. Would like to see the colour version too. Thanks for sharing.

[Deepak Ramani]

Thanks Mrudul for the comments. Here's the colour version. Somehow, this looks a lot cleaner and sharper in B&W than in colour.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Deepak,
Nice moment captured. It is always a pleasure to watch a cub. The pose gives us an idea as to what it is going to do next.

It is not easy to get these grab shots right. Especially when one is with other people in a vehicle and everyone trying to get a shot. The light was low. Was this clicked in winter? You were already using ISO 800. I won't suggest moving beyond that.

In these situations one needs to quickly decide on the composition and get the focus point right. At times manually moving the focus ring to help in the focusing is a better option. Also, in this case the face of the cub is hidden behind the branch. So manual focusing is definitely better.

You may like to check the article on handholding techniques: http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Bhargava Srivari]

Nice moment. I like the feel of the image. I agree with you that the B&W version looks a lot cleaner.

tfs

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice, well composed photograph with habitat. A rare moment with wary look, captured so well that it tells about the next step. Black and White photograph has some different appeal.Apart from seemingly better focussed look, stealth character of some predators may be sometime a little more expressive,in my view.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild