A happy panda

On one of my photo tour itineraries in China, I arranged at great expense to photograph a captive panda in the location of my choice. I chose a bamboo thicket because pandas eat almost nothing but bamboo shoots and leaves, so this was entirely natural. I also wanted a shady area to minimize contrast. I used a variety of lenses, including a wide angle lens, but this shot was taken with a 70-200mm. The settings were 1/320, f/4, and 500 ISO. This panda was 18 months old; the animal handler didn't want to use a full grown adult because it would be hard to control. I can only imagine the consequences to the person in China who'd lose a panda!