Rare Sighting?

[Ken Watkins]

Unfortunately I have had very few sightings of Brown Hyena, and certainly no reasonable images. Even in Kgalagadi they were always in Botswana:bg3:

The discovery of a den therefore came as a bit of a surprise, it was of course not exactly in the open and the sun angle both morning and afternoon proved to be very difficult.

We spent over 9 hours at the den but every now and again the pups appeared usually in strong shadow or amongst the twigs, they never tottered far from the den. Taken in Madikwe, South Africa 10th January 2012.

I managed a few reasonable shots, I think?

Here is one

EOS 1D MkIV

500mm F4 IS hand-held

F5.6, ISO 400, 1/200, EV-0.67

[Mario Moreno]

I think it came out right Ken. A sharp image overall. Focus on the eyes however looks a bit soft although the whiskers and ears are razor sharp. It could be the jpeg uploaded ..... Colors and DOF are great.

[Brendan Dozier]

Very nice, Ken. Love the face and expression, dirt on nose is nice touch, dof works, nice bg color. Maybe a little more sharpness around mouth?

[Mark Wiseman]

Hi Ken,
I like your image. The detail, the POV and the composition. You were very lucky with this sighting. At Polentswa I found a den of a brown hyena with a cub, but I did not want to interfere as the female and cub were too small and I did not want to alter the balance of nature. You were very fortunate, well done.
Best wishes,
Mark.

[Doug Zoern]

Ken,
I think so too, at least this one seems reasonable :S3:. The DoF looks perfect, sharp from nose to ears but the legs and back are soft. Nice background color too. Cute little thing.
I appreciate you telling the number of hours invested in these shots. I've read a lot of photo books and they tell you about lighting, composition, DoF, and technique but they never
really talked about the hours spent, conditions endured, and number of photos taken.

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks everybody for your comments, I really should have turned the ISO up to get a greater shutter speed.

Hanging around at a sighting especially one as rare (for me), is something I always do, but then I always pay for a private vehicle so that I can. In this case on our second day at the den we went early in the morning and stated for nearly four hours and the pups did not show at all. we only left because we had a long drive home.

I never like to race around looking and certainly if I found Cheetahs or Wild Dog staying all day would be my choice, you never know what might happen:bg3:

[Steve Canuel]

Nice shot Ken. Great triangle formed by the ears and nose with those bright eyes right in line.

[Arno Ellmer]

A rare sighting indeed ,Ken ! Well captured ,sharp where it counts. Yes, ISO could have been higher ,but thats the way it goes.
Certainly shows that it is very often worth it to hang around for 'the shot ' .
Just a question : why the EC at - 2/3 ?

[Ken Watkins]

Arno,

The negative EV was to try to eliminate burnt out whites sometimes it worked sometimes it did not, but certainly allowed for better "recovery" in PS.

[Rachel Hollander]

Ken - huge cuteness factor here. I like the pose and dof. My only nit is that I find the bright spot on the back draws my eye.

TFS,
Rachel

[Ken Watkins]

Rachel,

Thanks a lot, I tried to dull it down but it looked too artificial.

[Morkel Erasmus]

too cute! I think the tight facial portrait was a good choice...
I like shallow DOF in shots like these (much like the Cape Fox I posted a while ago)...and might crop even tighter at the legs?
I heard about this den in Madikwe (or at least, a den which provides good photo opps, sure it's the same one?)...

[Marc Mol]

Love the pose here Ken, good use of DOF, sharp where it needs to be.
A cherished sighting indeed, certainly one I've yet to see, so big congrats on this image. :cheers:
TFS

[v.p.nurdeen]

Hi Ken,
Nice pose and IQ.
VPN

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

Sorry for the delay , but I only just noticed your question.

As far as I am aware the den in question was discovered the evening before our visit, but can you believe a guide:w3

They were certainly very "fresh"

[Harshad Barve]

Big congrats on getting this , excellent image
TFS