Clouded leopard

I took this picture of a captive clouded leopard back in the 1980's. I've always been intrigued by these Asian cats because they are the closest living relative of the saber-toothed cats that became extinct 10,000 years ago. I've seen many photographs of clouded leopards with their mouths closed, but when they snarl and show their elongated fangs, it's an entirely different experience. I used my all-manual Mamiya RZ 67 film camera plus a Metz 45 flash for this shot, and until I became skilled at Photoshop, I was always bothered by the artificial background as well as a shadow on the tongue from one of the fangs. I have since dealt with those problems using Topaz Remask 5. The hardest part was maintaining the subtle tones in the whiskers. On-camera flash is the least attractive type of artificial light photographers use, but in this instance I had no choice.