Clouded leopard

I photographed this clouded leopard in the Nashville, Tennesse zoo. The enclosure is behind glass, but as you can see there is no evidence of that. By focusing on the cat with a telephoto lens, any dirt or imperfections on the glass become so out of focus they disappeared. I used a flash due to the low light environment, and I had to angle my shot so the glass didn't reflect the flash. In post-processing, I cloned out the reflections in the eyes from the artificial light. Many photographers, I’m sure, think that was a mistake. They feel a catchlight is important in bringing life to eyes, whether they be human or animal. I do agree, but the reflection of a flash looks artificial to me -- it looks like a studio shot -- and most of the time I clone it out. Besides, with the catchlight absent, the leopard’s eyes look that much more intense. My settings were 1/100, f/8, 640 ISO, and I used a 70-200mm lens.