Satisfied Cheetah Cub

Gallery: WildlifePosted July 16, 2011121 views8 comments

We spent a whole afternoon with a female cheetah and her 4 sub-adult cubs as they devoured a springbok lamb next to our car in the Kalahari desert (Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park) in June 2010.

At the time I was using the 100-400mm as my stock standard wildlife lens, and it enabled me to capture various compositions as the drama unfolded not 5 meters from our vehicle.

This is one of the cubs after they had finished most of the meal. I went for shallow DOF and wanted to accentuate the details and the blood on the facial fur.

Techs:
Canon 7D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 320mm
f6.3 @ 1/500 SS @ ISO-800

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on July 16, 2011 at 2:03 AM

perfect DOF to convey the fur detail and blood.
Nice eye too, but that hair over the eye bugs me a bit..
Excellent image!
When do we get a picture of your own new little cub?
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Stephen Kaluski on July 16, 2011 at 2:22 AM

Nicely done Morkel, really like the DOF on this one, works very well.

Try moving the RH slider in Levels to say 240 (amount optional) as I think it just picks out some more detail and just lifts it.

TFS
Steve

Registered on March 25, 2007, 189 Posts, 1064 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on July 16, 2011 at 9:11 AM

Hi Morkel,

Perhaps not a wall-hanger for most (based on the blood), but definitely well done and I think you accomplished your goal - the selective focus and shallow DOF does help the detail stand out nicely. If this shot were mine (there's an "I wish" in there somewhere), I'd probably crop a sliver off the right side and add about the same amount on the left side - too me this image is slightly too centred for my taste. And, I think I'd try to selectively increase the exposure in the head region - to me it looks just a bit flat right now. Doing this might force a contrast bump too...but can't say this for sure without playing with the image...

Cheers...thanks for sharing this...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by Charlie Baugh on July 16, 2011 at 12:13 PM

Wonderful shot Morkel. Must have been a great experience to watch from so close. It appears this cub has cleaned itself off as best it could around it's mouth. Do the other cubs clean each other of that tasty blood on parts of the head that they can't reach?

Charlie

Registered on April 18, 2011, 329 Posts, 1985 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on July 17, 2011 at 11:13 AM

Morkel, the processing looks fine and I appreciate your depth of field choices. My only suggestion is to experiment with positioning, if you have the pixels. To me it feels you could either have more space on the left, OR more crop from the right (halfway between the ear and frame edge.) I like the quality of the eye and the single hair does not bother my senses in the least. I suspect the graphic power of the red will keep this off some walls, but is will certainly command attention when shown.

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on July 17, 2011 at 1:44 PM

Thanks for your honest feedback, guys!

Here is a repost with some cropped off the RHS and bottom (the LHS is at the very edge of the RAW file).
Added a bit more contrast in this one too...your thoughts?

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on July 17, 2011 at 8:44 PM

Love the wet fur and blood - decent look at the eye and the BG is pleasantly OOF.

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on July 18, 2011 at 10:45 PM

Nice work on this cheetah Morkel. Really like the fresh blood from the recent meal and I do find the re-post a bit more appealing....both compositionally and the extra touch of contrast.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments