Tender Moment
Lisa decides her cub, Sasha, has some schmutz on his face and gives it a good cleaning. Sasha seems none too pleased, but somehow endures. :)
Sasha was born six months ago on March 3, 2020 at Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. Amur Leopards are critically endangered with only 65 left in the wild now, so every cub that is born is precious. This is nine year old Lisa's fourth cub - all males!
And they were great playing together. Lisa is an awesome mom.
Schmutz, btw is a great, evocative word meaning 'that gunk on your face,' or more simply 'dirt.' It came to us out of middle German, through Yiddish, into American slang.
Tech note: The habitat for the Amur Leopards at Brookfield Zoo is difficult for cameras to deal with since there is netting/fencing everywhere, and in the morning, the sun backlights everything - so the fences are very apparent in any captures. Before the pandemic, we were able to get close to some large panes of glass, which, along with matting techniques, allow for some great images (see my stream for some of those). But now, they are blocked off, so we can't get close enough to the glass to prevent reflections. For this shot, I was able to find a new angle that was not backlit, but was through not one, but _two_ fences. Fortunately for this shot, with some DoF magic, I could make the fences disappear. :)
Tender Moment
Lisa decides her cub, Sasha, has some schmutz on his face and gives it a good cleaning. Sasha seems none too pleased, but somehow endures. :)
Sasha was born six months ago on March 3, 2020 at Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. Amur Leopards are critically endangered with only 65 left in the wild now, so every cub that is born is precious. This is nine year old Lisa's fourth cub - all males!
And they were great playing together. Lisa is an awesome mom.
Schmutz, btw is a great, evocative word meaning 'that gunk on your face,' or more simply 'dirt.' It came to us out of middle German, through Yiddish, into American slang.
Tech note: The habitat for the Amur Leopards at Brookfield Zoo is difficult for cameras to deal with since there is netting/fencing everywhere, and in the morning, the sun backlights everything - so the fences are very apparent in any captures. Before the pandemic, we were able to get close to some large panes of glass, which, along with matting techniques, allow for some great images (see my stream for some of those). But now, they are blocked off, so we can't get close enough to the glass to prevent reflections. For this shot, I was able to find a new angle that was not backlit, but was through not one, but _two_ fences. Fortunately for this shot, with some DoF magic, I could make the fences disappear. :)