Wild jaguar at rest

Even at rest, all a wild jaguar has to do is look into the camera and the animal conveys immense power and beauty. My photo tour to the Pantanal region of Brazil is coming up the beginning of November, and I never get tired of going there. The birds are incredible, and so are the caiman, giant river otters, and capybaras, but it's the jaguars that raise my blood pressure! It's a safari from a high-speed boat. The big cats come down to the river to hunt, and even though they are relatively close, a long lens is needed to get this kind of frame-filling shot. I used a 500mm lens here plus a 2x teleconverter giving me 1000mm of focal length. I tried using a monopod but I felt it was too inhibiting, so this is handheld. Between bouts of shooting I rest my Canon 1Dx Mark ii and the lens in my lap simply to take the weight off my arms and shoulders. With this kind of focal length, the shutter speed had to be at least 1/1000th of a second. myself settings here were 1/1250, f/11, ISO 1600.