Most tourists wish to see a 'kill' when on safari in Africa (pretty cruel actually when you think about it no?). The chances of seeing an actual kill taking place, however, are not that big at all (at least in southern Africa). What is a common sighting is to see predators feeding on a carcass. Though these sighting are often quite interesting to watch, they don't hold my interest for too long, particularly not from a photographic point of view as I find it near impossible to create wildlife art on such sightings. Yet, being there with others who do want to watch and photograph, I also shoot; what else is there to do? And so I have collected many images of predators on kills in my files by now, but I never care to process them and consider it a waste of time. A recent sighting with a cheetah family on a kudu kill was such a situation. What made matters worse was the horrible patchy, rather harsh, lighting. This time I decided to make an effort (again) to look for anything worth processing in what I shot at that sighting. I chose one less gory with some interaction between two youngsters quarreling over the Kudu's head rather than the images with their heads buried in the antelope's intestines. The selected image required a lot of work as the BG was in bright sunlight and the cheetahs in the shade. I probably wasted my time after all... again.
And maybe the morale of this story is: shoot what you want to shoot (if you can), not just anything that is in front of you.
Camera Model Canon EOS 1D Mark IV
Shutter Speed 1/400 Sec.
Aperture Value f/8
ISO Speed 800
Lens EF500mm f/4L IS USM
Crop 95% of original.
PS: I know it needs some room on top...
Comments
4 commentsHmmm...this one needs some room on top!
I'm in total agreement with your statement about not shooting anything that is front of you. It's a bit of a paradox tho' - many non-professional wildlife shooters don't have the luxury of being surrounded by wildlife on an ongoing basis so the urge (and excitement) to just start firing when they're confronted by a strong subject is very understandable (heck, it may be the only chance they ever get). Yet, firing away at "anything in front of them" often keeps them from really seeing those special moments that a selective shooter sees and captures. To be honest, I think it's one of the toughest lessons for a wildlife photographer to learn (and fully incorporate and implement into their conceptual toolkit).
In the case of this shot I do find the "tug of war" and single eye quite compelling. Yes it might be better if we had two eyes in the shot, but if it's not there, it's not there. Generally I agree with Lon about going tighter here, but I'm thinking a slightly vertical crop (meaning just off square as I know how you feel about square crops!
Cheers - thanks for the moral and the image!
Brad
Thanks for adding to my write up, you are so right! On my first few sightings of predators on kills I also fired away like mad.It was only after a while that I realised that despite the thrill of the sighting and the wonderful privilege of experiencing this that I realised that the images I created on these sighting hardly ever really pleased me, i.e. I never felt the urge to print them and never sold any of the images I did process (that I know off anyway). That made me rethink spending time on such sightings which could possibly be better spend on other opportunities, particularly during the best hours of light. No, not everyone has that 'luxury' and I sure do not blame people who want to spend as much time as they wish. In fact, I even know people who love nothing more that photographing such gory sightings and on my trips definitely do accommodate them!