Respite from the Hunt

Photograph by Axel Elfner

During the summer of 2022 in the Timbavati nature reserve in South Africa, we were at the end of our game drive, but our tracker sensed a leopardess in the area and attempted to find her. He eventually did, and at one point she appeared just to the right of our vehicle, and growled with frustration that a hare she was pursuing had taken shelter under our vehicle. In the moment, I didn't immediately recognize that, and thought she was growling at us, and this filled me with both fear and excitement. Shortly thereafter, we encountered her again, stopping for a drink at a small shallow water hole.

Several in our group had already stowed their cameras, not expecting sufficient conditions to capture quality images. I was fortunate to still have my camera out, with settings used for sunset images - the last thing we explicitly stopped for. Fortunately, those were perfect settings for a brief spotlight assisted capture of this beautiful and powerful animal.

She is exquisite, and to this day, this image remains one of my all time favorites. I explicitly processed this as black and white, as between her quintessential markings and the fact that it was nighttime, the mood of the scene and what I personally felt is best conveyed.