I've posted this elsewhere already, so might as well post it here too...
We were privileged to pull into a cheetah sighting last week in the Mara Triangle just as the hunt was about to begin. Little did I know that the final takedown would happen 30 meters in front of us...needless to say that with a 500mm fixed lens this was challenging.
I know - "get a 200-400", but the 200-400 isn't suited to 99% of my personal safaris (based on location and distance of sightings). It's also not suited to my budget to own 2 super telephotos. Besides, the chase here could have easily veered away from us and then a 200-400 or even the 500 with 1.4x may have not been enough reach. You win some, you lose some. I did have the D800+70-200 within reach but the framerate of the D800 is not conducive to capturing these fleeting seconds of drama properly IMHO.
Anyway...what do you think of this frame?
I'd rather clip the antelope's horn than the cheetah's tail.
Cropped in a little tighter from left and bottom for framing, still 90% of original image.
I'll probably reconstruct the horn and add some canvas to submit this to my image agency (though I almost never do that to an image), just because of the drama captured here.
Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f8.0 | 1/3200 SS | ISO-900 - See more at: http://www.naturescapes.net/forums/v....DHmdgMoR.dpuf









Reply With Quote
Good call to up the ISO to gain greater SS to nail the action. 



