Theme 222- Perfect

This was one of the most perfect days ever - certainly in the photography sense. I have done 2 seminars with a company called "Experience Seminars", they are for Canon users only and I booked 3 in total. They were all classroom stuff and the final one was learning the flash system. I decided I had had enough of the theory for a while and changed the flash one for a practical day and opted for the "Big Cat Shoot". All I can say is "WOW", am I glad I changed. It was in Welwyn and it was at the Santago Leopard Project. There were just 12 of us in total. The cats were in enclosures (of course) but with just one fence between them and us, so we could get very close. It is a private collection and therefore not open to the public in general, only for these photo experience days and members only.

Amongst the collection is a Cloud Leopard and the very rare Snow Leopard. They are very closely monitored to ensure the cats well-being and to keep the gene pool  pure. The intention is that these cats, or their off-spring, go back into the wild.

I feel incredibly privileged to have had this experience and to have been able to get so close to these magnificent creatures.

Incidentally, the first photo here is a leopard called "Pebbles", she was hand reared in the kitchen of the people who own the collection - She is about 3 years old now and a favourite with most of us. An endearing but spirited nature. The second one of the cat laying on the branch, is a Cloud Leopard, he is called Harry - also quite a character.