A wildlife photographer in Africa has to grow a thick skin to put animal suffering into perspective. When a lion kills a zebra, it’s a pity for the zebra and possibly the foal left behind (or vice versa), but lions have to eat so that’s life. I rarely lie awake anymore after such an event. But sometimes …
For example, there was that late afternoon and early evening we spent with a leopard cub that was left alone in the bushes. Mommy was probably hunting, and the cub was hiding as best it could. At one point, however, it entered the grass (great, I could photograph it clearly!) and then quickly climbed the nearest acacia tree. The reason for that became clear just a bit later. A huge hyena (one of the biggest enemies of leopard cubs - after all, it’s best to take out the competition as soon as possible) approached the scene and stopped under the tree, looking up. Wonderful how instinct and the education of mother leopard had made the cub do exactly what it was supposed to do! The cub, however, was not comfortable in the thorny tree and had to move regularly, so every time I was afraid that it would fall from the tree and fall prey to the hyena. When it got too dark I had to leave, this time very worried… would mother leopard come back? Would the cub survive the night? This really touched me. The next morning we went straight to the same spot, but there was nothing left to see. My heart sank. What had happened here last night? However, when we crossed another vehicle a long time afterwards, the guide told us that he had seen Mommy and her leopard cub walking through the grass that morning some distance from last night’s spot. Phew! That made my day. And yet you know that sometimes it ends differently and you can only accept that… that’s nature.
Lovely photo Ingrid. The framing and composition are just right showing just how incredibly thorny those acacias are and the vulnerability of the cub.
I agree that there may be a touch of a green cast on it.
Such a cute image Ingrid. Really nice eye contact and a sense of its habitat as well with all those thorns. I also feel it has a green cast. It also seems a bit noisy but it is hard to say if it is just in the Jpeg.
Ingrid, this looks great. I like how the green foliage matches the cub’s eyes and how all of that is set off by the warm background. The intensity of the cub’s look is striking. The colors look real to me and I appreciate their subtlety.
FINALLY I got down to adusting this image. And it literally took 1 minute to change the white balance a bit and I have to admit to my eye this looks better. What do you think @David_Bostock@DvirBarkay@Mark_Seaver@Ryan_H@jaapv ?
