Leopards

Sought by all visitors to the Serengeti, the leopard is an elusive, stealthful, sleek, beautiful cat. Our group was nearing the end or our Serengeti adventure and had come to an area known to be a leopard habitat. Finally, late in the afternoon, our vehicle joined several others along a narrow track and we also trained our cameras and binoculars on this sleeping huntress about 75 yards into the grassland. For nearly an hour we watched, with declining attentiveness, her slumber.  Many of the original vehicles had slipped away, and most of the remaining cameras were no longer at the ready for the coveted image. Fortunately, mine had remained focused and poised on its bean bag. Suddenly she arose and within a very few seconds descended from her perch and disappeared into the grass. I like particularly the composition of the horizontal image, the simplicity and lines of the trees and the grace of the animal. The curve of her tail and the adjoining trunk contrast with the otherwise vertical or diagonal lines in the image.