Cheetah Dawn

Gallery: WildlifePosted March 13, 2012165 views6 comments

An awesome moment recently - a cheetah shot into the sun at dawn. I couldn't believe that this one walked across the dirt road and stood in front of the rising sun. To be honest it was so exciting that I stopped thinking (as you can tell by the ISO setting that was set for the other direction!). It was really a moment amongst moments for me...

Cropped slightly off the bottom and left. And slightly sad about the background tree so close to the top of the frame...

D700
200-400mm VRII
1/5000s
f4.5
ISO 1000
-1.7EV

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Cristina Strudthof on March 13, 2012 at 5:27 PM

How exciting! I forget to check my ISO a lot at times and I don't even have a cheetah to blame it on. I like this one a lot.

Registered on January 14, 2011, 53 Posts, 363 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on March 13, 2012 at 6:11 PM

Luckily your camera can handle that ISO without flinching

super mood here, very well handled overall James!
in an ideal world I guess there wouldn't have been so many twigs sticking up from the grass

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

Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on March 13, 2012 at 11:45 PM

I am such a sucker for such back-lit images, James, and this is near perfect. The only nit - the 'missing' right ear makes the cheetah a little lop-sided.

Registered on December 19, 2008, 302 Posts, 2055 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on March 14, 2012 at 8:19 AM

Cool silhouette and beautiful golden lining here. I agree with Ajit's comment about missing ear, had to stare at the image for few seconds to understand the head's position.
Jagdeep Rajput

Registered on April 29, 2008, 686 Posts, 2857 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on March 14, 2012 at 1:21 PM

Wish I were there James, must have been an wonderful sighting and opportunity indeed.

I like how this came out; the focus is pot on (which can be challenging in a situation like this) and the exposure on the cheetah is perfect. This did leave the BG a bit overexposed with some hot areas there. You have probably tried, but if not I would suggest to go back to the RAW file and perfect the exposure of that BG. I love that tree in the BG, which is a key element in the appeal of this image to me, but wish there would have been a sliver of space above it; that IMO would have perfected the composition. All in all a really compelling image.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on March 15, 2012 at 12:23 PM

Nice work. I might experiment with a bit of a grad effect, darkening the bottom foreground a touch. Rim lighting is so dramatic!

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