Tag: Leopard

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2017-01-29: Leopard Before and After

I know today is supposed to be my what I’ve seen this week day, but I’ve seen absolutely nothing at all, so I had to come up with something a little different.

When I was in Queen Elizabeth Park in Uganda, we were lucky enough to come across a leopard, once in the morning for a fleeting glimpse, and then for a longer period just before nightfall.  Four of the six people that were also on the tour had never seen a leopard in the wild before.  It was drizzly, near dark, and I was shooting from a vehicle where people were moving around a fair bit, so I had to deal with both movement of my subject and where I was located.  Some of the photos I took were at 1/100sec, f5.6, ISO 25,640.  No, the ISO isn’t a typo.  I believe on my Nikon it was called Hi2.0.

I have been extremely blessed with leopard sightings over the years (check out Lions vs A Leopard or 2016-10-17: Monochrome Monday for just a couple examples), but I continued to photograph this one because I thought it would be interesting to see how the images turned out, and what I could do with them.  While everyone else was heading on to other safari destinations after our Uganda tour, there is no guarantee they would get another leopard sighting… what if an image like this was the best that you could get?

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Tons of noise and a strange colour cast = not the best image.  But the position of the leopard is nice.

Below is the process I used to work through this particular image, and the end result.

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I loaded the image into Photoshop and used Topaz Denoise 6 for noise reduction.  This is the image on import.
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I used the preset Raw – Stronger for my noise reduction.  While the noise reduction softens the image, it is still a step in the right direction.
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I then loaded the denoised image into Nik Color Efex Pro.  I use lots of different plug ins, but I really like the Lighten/Darken centre option in Color Efex for images like this.  I used the presets remove colour cast at 25%, lighten/darken centre, sunlight (to add some warmth back to the image) and brilliance/warmth to add some colour saturation.
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After I saved the image in Photoshop, I returned to Lightroom and did a final crop, as the edges were still very noisy, and did not add anything to the image.
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And here is the final result!  While not my best leopard image, if this was the only image I had and wanted to use it in a blog post, photo slideshow or book about my trip, I would be happy to do so.  And it turned out, this leopard was the only one I saw on this particular trip.

So there you have a before and after – let me know if posts like this are something you would like to see more of in the future.

Please visit:

www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.

and

https://shopvida.com/collections/voices/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.

 

 

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2016-12-29: WPC Path

The end of the year is a great time to reflect on the path that has been travelled over the year, and the ones that you hope to travel on in the coming year.  2016 has been an interesting, and really good year.  The photos below encompass some of my thoughts about the various paths that I am on.

There are times when the path is clear; you know where you are going and the way is easily defined.  If you have to retrace your steps for some reason, it’s easy to get back where you started.

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Sand Forest, Phinda Game Reserve, South Africa. 

 

On some days, the path might seem barren and you feel all alone, but you never know what might pop up ahead.

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A saddle billed stork takes to the road.  Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

 

Sometimes others will doubt that you are on a path at all; they will question your direction and your vision.  But you know exactly where you are going.

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An elephant heads towards the river for an early morning drink.  Ishasha Sector, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda.

 

Sometimes you need to create your own path.  You can’t see where you are headed, and if you try to turn around, the way is just as obscured.  Going on intuition is the only way forward.

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A leopard moving through the tall grasses, Ishasha Sector, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda.

 

Sometimes the only thing to do is take a break, rest, and return to the path later on.  This is especially true when you have no idea what you are doing, or where you are going!

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Silverback Makara rests on one of the game trails in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Forest, Uganda.

 

Please visit:
www.jennifersawickyphotography.com for wildlife, landscape and nature inspired artwork.

and

https://shopvida.com/collections/voices/jennifer-sawicky for textiles inspired by my photography.

WPC Path

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2016-11-04: Feel Good Friday

Friday already!  It really snuck up on me; this week has gone by in a blur.

You know what I wouldn’t like sneaking up on me, is this beautiful girl.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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2016-10-17: Monochrome Monday

A trio of leopard shots for this Monochrome Monday.

You can find these, and lots of others here on my website.  Your walls surely deserve an update with some new artwork – matte or glossy paper prints, traditional, stretched or thin wrap canvas and even prints on metal.  Check it out!

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2016-10-14: Feel Good Friday

The week has flown by, happy Friday everyone!

My feel good Friday photo this week is one of two gorgeous leopard cubs we spent time with while staying at Ngala.  The sighting was made all the more enjoyable by the excitement of the people I was sharing the vehicle with.  One of the women had hoped and hoped she might see leopard cubs; this was her last game drive before flying home, and she got her wish.  It’s lovely when things work out that way 🙂

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Leopard cub, Ngala Private Game Reserve.  South Africa, May 2015.  1/500 sec, f7.1, ISO 720.
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