Stealth

Kruger National Park, South Africa

One of the most difficult shots I have taken. I took around 50 exposures to get this one image. Each one was flawed; either focus problems or over-exposure. I was losing patience with myself because I understood how special this time was; the pressure was getting to me and this raised my adrenaline causing ever more camera shake. As you can imagine after a big cat is spotted, the word gets out and a few safari jeeps turn into dozens very quickly; all scrabbling to see the leopard. I took this exposure handheld and with manual focus using a portrait lens. In hindsight, with all the movement and jostling going on, that was quite a tall order.

Sony Alpha a7R (iv) Sony 135mm 1.8 GM lens 1/8000 seconds @ f2.2