The Leopards of Luangwa

[marc]

Whilst in Sth Luangwa, Zambia I had a lot of fun with vehicle spot lit and -EV/high ISO combined images on night time predators, in trips past I used to use my flash, high bracket mount, remote cord and better beamer
which was a lot to balance and results were very much hit and miss, dependent on getting that BB lined up just right.
With the D3s, that all changed and decided to try the spot lit method exclusively whilst on Sth Luangwa's night drives, I won't be going back to the BB method at least for night drives that's for sure.
I had Patrick Bentley (ex Lion Camp guide and a fine photographer) along with me for the week whilst @ Tafika camp and we had a ball practising this method.
Below are a few images using this method.

Spot lit Leopard on baby Impala
One night on such a drive we heard a bleating and scuffle, upon investigating and after negotiating the heavy undergrowth, we came upon this female Leopard on a newborn Impala, giving me a great down the lens stare.
We spent over an hour observing this very relaxed girl.
I opened up the exp 1/2 stop on the Impala's head to extract a little extra detail, whilst trying to eliminate any undue noise.

D3s 500VR 1/250s f/4 ISO1600 -2EV. F/F Nsefu sector, Sth Luangwa NP- Zambia Nov 2011.





The night stalker
D700 70-200VRII 1/160s f/2.8 ISO1600@ 200mm -2 2/3EV. F/F Nsefu sector, Sth Luangwa NP- Zambia Nov 2011.





Lightening cub
A 4 month old leopard cub (another shy one higher up) waiting for mum's return with an electrical storm & lightening bolt in the background .Taken using a high a multiple frame rate (and a lotta luck) during the storm.
D3s 500VR 1/100s f/4 ISO3200 -2 1/3EV. F/F
Chipela Chayumba region, Northern Mfuwe, Sth Luangwa NP- Zambia Nov 2011.





Waiting for mum, Leopard cub portrait
D700 70-200VRII 1/640s f/7 ISO1600@ 200mm -2 1/3EV. F/F
Chipela Chayumba region, Northern Mfuwe, Sth Luangwa NP- Zambia Nov 2011.





C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

[norwest]

Love the shots and envious of the opportunities. What type of light was the spot? LED? Xenon? Halogen?

[chrisk]

Marc, 2 and 4 are intense man.
Fantastic experience huh ?

[marc]

Thanks norwest

Love the shots and envious of the opportunities. What type of light was the spot? LED? Xenon? Halogen?

Just a plain hand held halogen spot light.

[Steffen]

Wow, that last one is absolutely gorgeous!

I like the first two as well. The third one is intriguing but suffers from the bright band of lights in the background.

Interesting lighting technique on all of them.

Cheers
Steffen.

[CraigVTR]

Iam torn between #1 & #4. The intense stare on 1 and the forlorn look on 4, all great shots.

[marc]

Thanks Chris, Craig & Steffen

The third one is intriguing but suffers from the bright band of lights in the background.

That happens to be a lightening bolt and was a deliberate effect I was trying for.

Cheers
Marc

[the foto fanatic]

Excellent images in tough conditions. I love #1 and #4.

Unfortunately the bokeh has distorted the lightning so that, without your explanation, we would not know what it was. I think it does let the image down somewhat.

Great work - must have been heart-thumping shooting leopard in an electrical storm!

[surenj]

Wow! Electric images in more than one sense.

I must say, that spot light would have been super bright for you to get those high shutter speeds (even with the high ISO!)

[radar]

Great photos Marc,

Love #2 and #4. Would also been have been a bonus to be photographing with Patrick.

Thanks for making me jealous

cheers,

André

[marc]

Thanks Trevor, Andre & Surenj

Wow! Electric images in more than one sense.

I must say, that spot light would have been super bright for you to get those high shutter speeds (even with the high ISO!)

The spot light was nothing special, the reason why the high shutter speeds are achievable is due to the minus -EV comp settings of -2 to -3.

Cheers
Marc

[TonyT]

The effect with the lighting in 2 and 4 is brilliant and the black seems to have a depth to it if that makes sense.

jealous put me down for that as well.

[aim54x]

#2 and #4 are brilliant....#2 is almost surreal with the falloff making the leopard seem like she is fading into darkness.

[BBJ]

Bloody Fantastic, love them all as we know how hard it could be to get these shots.

Well done!!

[Matt. K]

Whilst they are all very fine images... if only the third image was evenly lighted.....it would have been a wildlife masterpiece!

[surenj]

the reason why the high shutter speeds are achievable is due to the minus -EV comp settings of -2 to -3.

Ah. Interesting. Now I understand. I can't wait for this sort of sensor technology to stream down to consumer cameras.

[Matt. K]

Suren
I think Marc is saying he simply under exposed the images by 2 or 3 stops in order to keep the shutter speeds up...or........are you jsut exrecising very dry humour?