A Photographer’s Pursuit of a Black Panther - at night

A Photographer’s Pursuit of the Elusive Black Panther

Posting this in "Outdoors" because I thought you guys would appreciate it more than the OT knuckleheads. I've always been fond of photography, especially images captured after investing lots of time and effort. This story documents the trials and tribulations of a photographer capturing amazing (almost surreal) images of a black panther. I intentionally left out images in the OP so as not to spoil it for you - didn't want to separate the images from the story. I'm sure you'll agree that these images and the effort and creativity that went into capturing them are note-worthy.

"Did I really expect to get a photograph of a single, special leopard that the guides at Laikipia Wilderness Camp had only caught glimpses of on a handful of occasions over the past few years?"

"The last thing for me to do was fine-tune the position and brightness of each flash. This needed to be done in darkness, and in many ways it is the most critical part of the process. Summoning the mental energy to be creative after an exhausting day was a real challenge. Eventually, two hours after sunset, I headed back to camp. I was weary but excited to see what the next two weeks would yield."

"The next morning, I was up bright and early to check the traps. As I opened up each camera housing and pressed the “play” button, I was greeted with the same image: a beautifully lit picture of myself—my final test shot from the night before. I was disappointed not to have captured any wildlife, but not surprised—I never expected this to be easy. I resolved to leave the traps running for a few days before checking them again."