Camera: Sony RX10M4

Lens: ZEISS Vario-Sonnar 24–600 mm F2.4–4

Aperture: f/4

Shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 100

Description: Leopard staring out at me from within the dappled foliage

Story from behind the lens: She was my first leopard sighting in the Mara on this trip. I knew we were headed to a leopard as we we were driving toward her. As my guide pulled to a stop near another vehicle, I could not figure out where they were looking. "Where is she?" I wondered aloud. I scanned the bushes around us until suddenly I realized there she was, sitting tall, right there in the dappled light of the bush and looking directly at me. I love eye contact with the big cats and was lucky to catch her as she gazed back.

I've always seen leopards and other spotted cats in captivity and wondered just how such a flashy coat provides camouflage. At this sighting, I was just as fooled as her prey would be. She was, to my eye, hidden in plain sight.