Theme Intense Interest

[Andre Pretorius]

Captured this image just before sunrise on a rainy morning in Northern Kalahari. Light was almost non existent, pushed the D3S to 10 000 ISO to get enough SS for sharp image.

The family consisted of a mom and two cubs, male and female. We have been trying to locate them for 2 days, as the female has been vocalising around the vicinity of our camp at night. We enventually found the family unit at sunset relaxing in the cool, rainy end-of-day close to the waterhole. We hoped to find them in morning, and we did!

The cubs were in a playful mood and after drinking they moved off. We followed as they were moving, the one cub took a great deal of interest in his reflection( I presume) while staring in my lens. He was just over a metre away. The light was very low, therefore the big pupil size. (looks like he had some Dutch Cakes!)

Techs: Nikon D3S with 300F2,8
F5 with 1/500 sec
ISO 10 000

No NR done, only selective sharpening.

C&C welcome

Andre

[Colin Driscoll]

A metre away! You could have reached out and patted it. Great portrait irrespective of conditions.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andre - What a great look this cub gave you! The conversion looks good. Impressive IQ given that high an ISO.

TFS,
Rachel

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

One can see that this cub has never seen such an ugly face in hise short life!

Beautiful Andre! Can't believe that you got a shot this clean at 10,000 ISO - just amazing! Great shot!

[Marc Mol]

Love the gobsmacked look this little guy is giving you Andre, priceless! With the D3s performing nicely at that ISO, only thing I'd like is a tad more room on top.

[Andre Pretorius]

Thank you Colin, Rachel, Tobie and Marc

Marc, only cropped sliver from sides on bottom for comp, sorry had no more space


Thanks again

Andre

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice conversion and I too like the look, Andre.
DOF seems a bit shallow, at f5 I would have thought that the eyes would be sharper even though it was close?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Andre, more DoF yes and FP middle of the forehead, between the eyes, as it 'appears' more in the middle of the bridge of the nose, you really want eyes to nose sharp. The 'amazed/startled' look is endearing with those captivating eyes. Perhaps as an alternative a 1x8 crop, portrait may give better prominence to 'the look', WDYT?

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Andre,
great look into the viewers face………… priceless.
I like the conversion and the overall tonality , and thinking about the Iso the D3 is working very well under these conditions .
Comp is working ….. not as good in OP i think , i would go either Steve`s way or square.
Love those two eyes.

TFS Andreas

[Andre Pretorius]

Thank you Morkel, Steve and Andreas.

Morkel, in the commotion trying to place subject in frame without cutting ears or chin, the focal point might have been not on eye

Steve and Andreas- wanted to include grass blades with rain drops in comp....

We are having friends from the UK over till next week, please excuse my absence from BPN

Andre