Indian Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca)

[Spalea]

Zhayynn James: " As wildlife photographers we’re often obsessed with ‘clean’ images with no distractions. This attention to detail is certainly important, but often it becomes a liability where we’re not able to see opportunities that can create drama and mystery.

While in Panna National Park, we received the call of a leopard sighting it was already late and we had far to drive. But the time we arrived at the scene, there were several vehicles on a narrow track ahead of us and we were the last to arrive. To make things worse, the landscape was thickly wooded and the leopard was on the sloping hillside, hidden by the trees and I had no clear shot, while vehicles ahead could see the leopard clearly. However, when I looked through my lens, I found the leopard looking straight at me through the foliage. The foreground was not a hindrance, it was the perfect contextual feature and an amazing frame, so natural and adding to the mystery and sense of being watched by a master of stealth in its element. "

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