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Chris van Rooyen
01-22-2008, 03:46 PM
Spotted Hyaenas are often portrayed as cowardly scavengers in popular literature - a myth that was perpetuated by the popular movie Lion King. They are in fact highly efficient and courageous predators, and a single Hyaena will often drive even a full grown male leopard from its kill. Unfortunately they are not very photogenic animals, but in this instance I felt the animal looked every bit the formidable predator that it is. The image was captured in the Kruger National Park in South Africa on a cool, overcast morning .

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Date/Time: 2006:03:04 08:29:21
Shutter speed: 1/250 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Av
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 400
Lens: 300mm
Focal length: 300mm

Axel Hildebrandt
01-22-2008, 03:57 PM
Very interesting, I had no idea they could scare leopards away. I like the attentive pose. The fur looks a tad oversharpened on my monitor and it seems someone took a chunk out of his left ear.

D. Robert Franz
01-22-2008, 06:03 PM
A great portrait. I kinda like them.... Love the green BG and a real nice FG as well. Looks a bit oversharpened here as well

Cindy Cone
01-22-2008, 11:31 PM
I love the pose here, the alertness of the hyena. Great composition and background, but I agree about the oversharpening.

David Kennedy
01-23-2008, 01:21 AM
Hyenas can be really funny. Artie and I had a Spotted Hyena chase after our Land Cruiser in Kenya's Masai Mara this past September. He kept running after us for about two or three minutes. We were fairly convinced he wanted to be a pet!

John Cooper
01-23-2008, 04:14 AM
The red/brown of the hyaena compliments beautifully with the apple-green BG. I also like the alert pose. Fur does look a bit over sharpened though.

Kaushik Balakumar
01-23-2008, 06:09 AM
lovely portrait. his/her ear seems to be bitten.
i liked his/her expressive eyes ...

rgds,
Kaushik

David Steele
01-24-2008, 12:17 PM
A great portrait Chris and the sharpening is not overdone in my book (or should I say ViewSonic Pro screen!)!

Vincent Grafhorst
01-25-2008, 05:49 AM
Hi Chris,

You are a familiar name to me, I have seen many of your fantastic bird photos in print in South African magazines. I am looking forward to learning from you!

Though spotted hyaenas are absolutely not my favorite animals, I do agree with you that their general popular 'image' as 'cowardly scavengers' does not do these predators justice. I like the pose and focussed look of the hyaena in this portrait a lot. The only small nit I can see is the oversharpening of this presentation, which has already been mentioned.

Cheers!

Del Cockroft
01-25-2008, 09:58 AM
The alertness of the animal comes through very well. It's a good portrait but definitely oversharpened......

Chris van Rooyen
01-27-2008, 02:17 PM
Thanks for the comments guys:) Vincent thanks for the compliment, I'm sure the learning experience will be mutual.