When you meet someone new at camp while on safari one of the first things you do is list all the animals you’ve seen so far. So when we met a nice South African couple by the pool at Dolomite camp in Etosha National Park, we immediately went through our list of animals. When we mentioned that we saw a leopard their jaws dropped.

“I grew up in the bush my entire life and I have NEVER seen a leopard,” the friendly South African told us.

We had no idea how lucky we were. I was only able to get a few photos before the elusive cat slipped off into the bush. Take a look at the second photo in the gallery to see what the original perspective was completely zoomed in. This cat was very well hidden. We were only able to catch her/him because we came upon another pair of safari goers staring hard into the bush. When we slowly approached the spot they gave a gentle nod and pointed to this shady spot underneath a tree. We looked through our binoculars and could barely see it. So I pulled out my 70-200mm and snapped this photo, then cropped it even further and VOILA. There is the leopard panting in the shade of a tree under the white-hot noonday sun.

Wildlife photography is so incredibly difficult. Animals present themselves when they very well please, not when the light is perfect and reflecting beautiful colors off of the trees. Wildlife photography takes a huge amount of time and patience to get a perfect photo. Unfortunately, five days in Etosha was not enough time to get a good photo of a leopard, but lucky for us, it was at least enough time to catch a fleeting glimpse of this beautiful animal.

Magic 154/365, A Rare Leopard, Etosha National Park, Namibia, December 22, 2017