My wife and daughter spent the day at the International Beauty Show at the Javitz Center, so I had the whole day to myself in NYC. I started my day by going over to Roosevelt Island to see the Blackwell Island lighthouse, and I rode the tram back over to Manhattan. I still had about five hours to kill, and I wasn't sure what I was going to do. At that point, my wife sent me a text, telling me that the show "was a zoo". Now I knew what I was going to do, as I was only about four blocks away.
The tropical birds area was very nice (hot and humid, but nice) and I got some nice shots in there. The snow monkeys are cool, as are the red pandas. My first trip past the snow leopard enclosure found one cat out, asleep, with his back toward me , high on a rock. The polar bear was asleep. The penguins & puffins were neat, but stinky and behind glass with heavy condensation. The sea lions were fun to watch, too. I decided to double back to see if Mr. Polar Bear was awake. He was, but still groggy and I got a few decent shots. On to see if the snow leopard was up and about. When I arrived back, the one that was sleeping, was wandering around, but was behind some bushes. I took a few shots and decided I would go back to the birds. I didn't realize there was a second snow leopard enclosure and this one contained a female, who was up and quite active. While the male was behind heavy glass, she was enclosed by very fine (I assume) electric fencing. For the next hour, she put on quite a show. She sat and laid on a rock, probably no more than 25-30 feet in front of us. She even 'meowed' for us a few times. I didn't realize that the big cats meowed. I took several hundred shots of her before she eventually wander off back in to the bushes. I headed back to the birds, but it just wasn't the same.
I had a tough time choosing which shot to use. I narrowed it down to six, then to three and finally decided on this one. Expect to see her again in the 'Best of 2012' challenge next January.
adjusted contrast in Camera RAW
shadow/highlight
brightness/contrast
dodge the eyes
resize & sharpen with custom action
Noise Ninja
******
Thanks for all of the kind votes. Having tracked votes all week, I actually thought I may have gotten nothing under a 5. Those fours must have snuck in before I got out of bed on day one. The score was pretty low the first time I looked, I was actually disappointed, but then it began to rise.....
I was so excited by all of my shots that day. Probably one of the best photo sessions I've ever had. With scores like this, I'm going back to visit her every time I'm in NYC!
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