Tinseltown's most reclusive star is finally photographed - PHOTO

Perfectly framed with the Hollywood sign in the background, a cougar stalks through the City of Angels at night, the spectacular image the culmination of 14 months of painstaking work for legendary photographer Steve Winter.Famed for his photographs of big cats in their natural environment, Winter's latest masterwork is part of his 'Ghost Cats' story for the December 2013 issue of National Geographic in which he took on the challenging task of photographing cougars in their natural urban environment.Adept at using camera traps to capture his eerie images of cats blissfully unaware they are being photographed, Winter was inspired by the story heard around LA that a cougar was once pictured in Cher's backyard.Contacting biologist Jeff Sikich, an expert in cougar's in the Santa Monica Recreation Area on the outskirts of LA, Winter outlined his dream photograph, 'Wouldn't it be great to get a photograph of a cougar with the Hollywood sign?'Undeterred by the odds of capturing this image, Winter was told that a cougar had been seen recently crossing the 101 freeway near to the Hollywood Bowl before moving onto the Hollywood sign.'I immediately call my editor Kathy Moran to tell her I’m going to go out and figure out how we can get a photograph of this cougar … with the Hollywood sign,' said Winter. Setting up four motion-stop cameras, Winter was faced with three being stolen despite being heavily chained and locked.It took 14 months to actually get an image, but ever the perfectionist, Winter was not satisfied with his image.'Everybody was very happy, but I wasn’t happy. We are all our own worst critic or best critic. I went back to L.A. and changed the lighting so a shadow would appear around the cat’s neck so you would not see the collar as much,' said Winter. 'People were just happy that I got it, but then it’s like, we can do better. So I wanted to do better, and I knew I could.'Eventually, Winter got his shot, commenting, 'You talk about urban wildlife and, boom, there's the picture.'(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az