Photograph of the Month February 2025 Snow Leopard

The photograph of the month for February 2025, comes from my recent workshop to Western Mongolia for Snow Leopard (Read the Trip Report). What I love about this photograph is the sense of environment that surrounds the leopard and provides such wonderful context for the extreme environment in which this cat lives. At the time I took this photograph the air was thick with low cloud, snow and ice crystals which greatly adds to the enigmatic nature of this elusive wildcat. Shot with the Canon EOS R1 and Canon RF600mm f4L IS and a 1.4 TC (effective focal length 840mm). The decision of where to place the leopard was an easy intuitive one with the cat moving from left to right. The high speed capture of the EOS R1 meant I could chose the perfect frame for paw position to give the sense and feeling that the cat was on the move. In this case the gaze of the cat also perfectly compliments the lead in to the landscape.