Kgalagadi Cheetas

[Hendri Venter]

I captured this Cheetah cubs in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park In February 2010. This is the same two cubs that earned me IOTW in Dec last year and it was such a nice experience to meet up with them again 5 months later. According to Dr Guss Mills who heads up the Cheetah conservation project in Kgalagadi they should stay with their mother for another 10 months.

Canon 1D MKIII
Canon 300 F2.8 IS
F7.1
ISO 400
SS 1/200
Aperture Priority
Exposure +.7

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Hendri, I didnt see your previous post of these two, but in this, I really like the double head stare. I also like the similar postures, and both with identical open mouths. Overall, great capture mate.

[Deborah Harrison]

Wow! wow! wow! Knowing how endangered cheetah are becoming it's great to see a shot like this, let alone the composition. On my screen looks somewhat oversharpened, I would prefer a softer look but it also reflects the sharpness of the lens you used:).
Hope you can continue to follow them as they grow, become independent and hopefully survive in an increasingly hostile environment. Thanks for sharing an amazing shot.

[Alfred Forns]

Love it Hendri With the selected focal length had plenty dof to cover, excellent poses and great feel !! This is going to make one fine print !!! Big Congrats !!!

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image with fantastic four eyes contact , big congrats

This is going to make one fine print !

+ 1 here
TFS

[Ken Watkins]

This is a very nice pose, but I am not sure about the light. Nevertheless I would be happy to have it in my collection.

Deborah,
I would not take all of this loss of wildlife publicity seriously (bad news is always publicised), the Cheetah population is not diminishing greatly at least in Southern Africa. Great work is being done by CCF and others, the breeding at Phinda has allowed for lots of introductions/ reintroductions in private reserves in South Africa. Sanparks is also doing its bit with a highly sucessful reintroduction at Mountain Zebra National park.
All is not lost:)

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The composition is fine. Light could have been better. I like the pose and the eye contact. Good to hear about the succesful reintroductions.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Callie de Wet]

Hendri, I just love the un-equal 'X" created in this post with the wide bottom and the small top created by their heads. It has great intensity. I concur with Deborah on the sharpening.

[johan barnard]

Hendri. this is a stunning shot, good eye contact with them,

like it , well done

[Hendri Venter]

Thank you so much for the kind comments. Yes the light made for a tricky exposure. Cheetas mainly shaded and the BG in full sunlight. I needed some cloudy conditions there;)

[Morkel Erasmus]

you know I love this Hendri. I would desaturate the blue channel as it's come through in some of the whites and yellows. I would try to do a bit more shadow/highlights recovery, but very selectively. All in all I wish this was mine!! The x-shape really takes it over the top.

[Steve Kaluski]

Certainly unusual and well seen.:)

[Deborah Harrison]

.

Deborah,
I would not take all of this loss of wildlife publicity seriously (bad news is always publicised), the Cheetah population is not diminishing greatly at least in Southern Africa. Great work is being done by CCF and others, the breeding at Phinda has allowed for lots of introductions/ reintroductions in private reserves in South Africa. Sanparks is also doing its bit with a highly sucessful reintroduction at Mountain Zebra National park.
All is not lost:)


Thanks Ken, nice to have some good news for a change!

[Austin Thomas]

Lovely composition and you have handled the exposure very well.

tfs

Austin

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hendri - I know you don't mind so I tweaked it a bit. Tell me what you think...

Removed the blue and magenta cast, then did selective toning down of BG and slight lightening of the cats.

[Kiran Khanzode]

The juxtaposed look is phenomenal, this is an award winner...but the eyes....they have been PP'd too much :-). I love brother morkel's version...here's a variation of his...

Talk about genetic bottleneck, they look like exact replicas of each other here, nice job !

As for Cheetahs and Leopards, watch out for CITES allowing hunting of both the species in 2010 in Namibia. I wonder what Laurie Marker is thinking right now.....

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,
Another fine repost.

Kiran
CITES does not control hunting merely the export of hunting trophies.
Hunting of most big cats takes place in all countries with the exception of Kenya, there is currently a ban on hunting Lions in Botswana. Namibia had a moratorium on the hunting of both Cheetah & Leopard in place last year, I am told but without official confirmation that this will be extended.

[Hendri Venter]

Thanks for the kind comments everyone. Morkel nice job on the colours and Kiran you did very well on the BG.

[Kiran Khanzode]

Morkel,
Another fine repost.

Kiran
CITES does not control hunting merely the export of hunting trophies.
Hunting of most big cats takes place in all countries with the exception of Kenya, there is currently a ban on hunting Lions in Botswana. Namibia had a moratorium on the hunting of both Cheetah & Leopard in place last year, I am told but without official confirmation that this will be extended.


Hendri, glad you liked my version of your fine image.

Ken,
Agreed. There is an official moratorium on issuing new cheetah and leopard hunting permits in Namibia currently. However, permits that were issued before the moratorium are still being used to hunt big game/cats today(see links below). Most likely the moratorium will be lifted once the new regulations on cheetah/leopard hunting are in place. I hope you are right and the moratorium gets extended. However, Illegal and unethical hunting still goes on, I am sure. Hunting might resume as soon as April 2010, let's wait and watch.

Ah, the lure of trophies...and the power of money......

I just find it unimaginable that people pay huge amounts of money to kill the same big cats I/we spend our lives trying to capture in our cameras. Live and live !

A few Namibian websites that list animals you can hunt (with valid permits from the past):

http://www.ovitahunting.com/e_rates.htm
http://www.namibianhuntingsafaris.com/plains_game_hunting.htm#plains_game_hunting

http://www.ausafari.com/African-Hunting-Safaris/Countries/Namibia/Game-Available-and-Fees.aspx

http://natron.net/ekongo/index.html

[Ken Watkins]

I think this forum is not really the right basis to debate hunting, you can believe what you like about Namibia but it is no different to any other country, except for the aforementioned Kenya.

[Kiran Khanzode]

Ironically, even without hunting, Kenya's wildlife numbers have fallen 2/3rd in the past 30 years......

Poaching, destruction of habitat, a few of the reasons why wildlife around the world suffers today.

Shoot them while you can(in the wild), people. Future generations might go to zoos to shoot them.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Kiran

Understand the points you are trying to make but this is not the place to bring them up. We post and critique wildlife images with come comments on the side.

The regular discussion galleries would be a better place and I' sure to get input from many members.

[Stephen Stephen]

Hendri one very fine post. I just wish that this was mine. ;)

[peter delaney]

superb capture... love Kirans version !

[Hendri Venter]

Thank you very much for the kind comments. Its always appreciated.:)