Deborah Albert
December 2024 - "The Ghost"
About the Image(s)
Snow leopard Ladahk
f/16 1/2500 iso 5000 1120 mm Canon R5 800mm f/11 with 1.4 tele
7 comments posted
Allen Kurth
You got a photo of something few of us will never see in the wild! Great title Posted: 12/09/2024 22:09:11
Wow! hard to see these animals in the wild!
The image looks fine...it is difficult to spot the subject at the first glance. My eye went straight to the patch of snow. I would crop it. Posted: 12/11/2024 17:07:26
The image looks fine...it is difficult to spot the subject at the first glance. My eye went straight to the patch of snow. I would crop it. Posted: 12/11/2024 17:07:26
Deborah Albert
It is already cropped quite a bit and while I agree that the snow is distracting, to me it is part of the story. Posted: 12/19/2024 22:37:48
Wow
Snow leopard. How did you get it. They are very elusive ,would love to hear your story on this one. Posted: 12/19/2024 22:12:41
Snow leopard. How did you get it. They are very elusive ,would love to hear your story on this one. Posted: 12/19/2024 22:12:41
Deborah Albert
This was taken in Ladakh,India from very far away. Spotters go out in the morning and when they spot one you drive over and jump out hoping it hasn't disappeared by the time you get there. Meanwhile you are combing the mountains from the lodge. Alot of it is luck. I saw 4 in 10 days, bitter cold, I would definitely go back. Posted: 12/19/2024 22:36:12
You are very very lucky. Posted: 12/19/2024 22:57:55
Great experience, Deborah! And I'm sure very memorable. I have considered signing up for such a trip, but one of the reasons I have not is that you are necessarily so far from your subject. It's rare to see a competitive photo of these rare and elusive cats. Even when pros give talks about photographing all the big cats, their images or snow leopards look similar to this.
I agree that the snow is part of the story, but in this case it is a very small part of the frame and I agree it pulls my eye away from the cat. But TBH if you cropped in close, you would still just have a big snow leopard lying down on a rocky slope. Few judges would appreciate how much work is involved getting an image like this, and they can only judge the image in front of them.
It's worth entering it a few times to see what happens. As I pointed out with my own images this month, sometimes you get a nice surprise.
Lillian Posted: 12/22/2024 19:01:45
I agree that the snow is part of the story, but in this case it is a very small part of the frame and I agree it pulls my eye away from the cat. But TBH if you cropped in close, you would still just have a big snow leopard lying down on a rocky slope. Few judges would appreciate how much work is involved getting an image like this, and they can only judge the image in front of them.
It's worth entering it a few times to see what happens. As I pointed out with my own images this month, sometimes you get a nice surprise.
Lillian Posted: 12/22/2024 19:01:45