The leopard is an animal very intelligent and territorialit blends in so as not to be found by possible enemies who want to enter its territory, attack it or take its prey.
One of the moments where they can be seen with relative ease is when they climb the trees, since when they advance through the immensity of the savanna it is more difficult to see or locate them, since they are designed not to be seen, thanks to their specialized fur. in mimicry. Even when it is in a tree you may not see it.
The shooting data is ISO 1250; f/6.3; 1/200 sec; Sony A7 IV camera; Sony 200-600mm f5.6/6.3 G OSS lens; focal length 535mm
When in photography we have the largest light source in front of the objective, in the measurement of light, there is one or several elements in front, and if the photographer wishes, he can take two types of photographs. One is to overexpose the image by a stop or two so that the subject can be seen in less light.
Another option, the one chosen in this case, is to measure in the background, where the light is strongest, and thus the subject in the foreground will be exposed in black, resulting in a backlit image, which is always very visually attractive.
In this case you can perfectly sense the large tree with its branches, the leopard calmly lying on one of them and the sunset with its pink hues. It is extremely important when we make this type of images that, as in this case, the leopard is perfectly silhouetted, that is, that we know what it is just by looking at the image. Here, for example, you can see the ears, the head, the entire body and even the tail of the animal.
The leopard’s tail is a great giveaway of its location, since its vertical shape, when dropped, stands out in the silhouette of the tree if we want to look for it.
It’s already dusk and there are only a few minutes of light left, barely five or ten minutes at most to be completely dark. The light goes down quickly and you have to be very aware of the shutter speed. In this case, we maintain an ISO 1250to not have a lot of noise in the final image, and with a speed of 1/200 seconds it seems to be enough, since the leopard is not moving, it simply tilts its head or moves its paws slightly.
In the composition of this photograph, the leopard is placed in the upper right area at a point of visual interest. The rest of the frame is a compendium of the branches of the tree where the animal lives. In this way, you capture the place where the protagonist lives at that moment in his life cycle and you can tell a story or complement it with this image.
It is a very evocative image of African sunsets, with a leopard in its tree enjoying the sunset and waiting for night to begin the hunt.
