Cheetah Cub

[Loi Nguyen]

Image taken at Mashatu, Botswana about 2 years ago. I'm about to head back to Africa, so wanted to review the images I had taken in the last 3 trips. Sadly to say, I realized I made so many basic mistakes in the first two, mostly too slow SS and under expose. It appeared I did better on the 3rd trip 2 years ago keeping my SS reasonably high. We had incredible encounter with a Cheetah family with 4 nearly grown cubs. On this morning, The Mother was trying to hunt, but there were 3 pesky Hyenas who kept shadowing the family. So they played a game hide and seek and at one point 3 of the cubs got up on this tree to try to find Mom.

1DX
100-400 II @ 170mm
1/1000
f5.6
ISO-1600
HH

The light was bright and the colors were off. I couldn't get it right, so decided to try B&W.

Appreciate your comments as I will head back in about 2 weeks. Looking forward to meet Marc at Lake Ndutu.

Thank you

Loi

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Loi - I like the diagonal line of the cheetah coming down the mound. The b&w conversion works but there some of the whites on the cheetah appear hot. The bits of branches/twigs coming down from the top of the frame are distracting. Up to you whether to remove them. It's always a good idea to look back in preparation for an upcoming trip. Enjoy.

TFS,
Rachel

[Ken Pollock]

Hi Loi,

I love the image. I've never tried to work in B&W but was wondering if darkening the background a little might highlight the cheetah a bit more. I really like the eyes and the pose. I think it's a great image.

Best Regards,
Ken

[Jonathan Ashton]

Good idea Loi, for me the highlights especially under the chin and neck are too bright. I try to turn a blind eye to minor distractions but I agree with Rachel about the twigs at he top of the frame.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Loi i like the down tree :bg3: moving cheetah .The angle is nice and you have a very pleasing BG .
But from the technical POV this goes into the bin from my POV .
I think not even going B/W will save this frame .... sorry just being honest .
Hope you will remember your failures ..... :bg3:.... i mostly forget and make the same again from time to time :eek3::bg3:

TFS Andreas

[haseeb badar]

Hi Loi -- definitely i would love photograph a Cheetah on such a perch , but this image is not working for me either , because of the distracting FG and the blown out highlights , sorry ! , Wish you all the very best for your trip .

TFS !

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice pose and composition here Loi. I do agree you overcooked some of the whites/highlights? Unless it's like that in the original RAW, easy to correct when starting from scratch.
Enjoy your upcoming return! Are you only going to Tanzania?