Red Panda
Graeme Pickett, Hampshire Says… I regularly visit Marwell Zoo in Hamshire and have made it a mission to capture the elusive red panda. She is invariably perched in the highest part of the tree and difficult to see, let alone get a clear shot. As usual she was in her regular spot but more active and came down to ground level. As it was near closing time the keepers were trying to clear the park so I only had a few moments to snap away. In my opinion this shot was the best of a batch. Brian Says…
You’ve proved that for wildlife photography the photographer needs three essential characteristics, perseverance, luck and subject knowledge. I think the result is good, with the light drawing your eye straight to the panda. That said the panda is a little small in the frame, so you might try a tighter crop to remove the dark areas from the bottom. I’d also look to exclude the sawn edge of the timber on the paws level, as it looks out of place. I don’t know what the light was like, but I think the fur could be more vibrant, which would be easy to fix with some vibrance or saturation in the red and orange colour channels.