Cheetah 4 x4 stack

[Marc Mol]

Four x 4 month old cheetah cubs play "stacks on the mill" one morning on the grassland plains of Ndutu, Northern Serengeti.

Would have liked a tad more lower room and the cut tail is unfortunate and the price one pays for a prime lens, but a fun scene to witness as this quartet played after meal time.

Nikon D500
Nikkor 400 f/2.8E FL VR
f/11
1/2500s
ISO 1600

Cropped to portrait, bean bag- front pax seat, curves, levels, TK adj's in ACR & PS CC'17.

Cheers
Marc

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Marc leaving your self critique aside , in which i do agree , i think this is a so great and dynamic frame .
Love the 4x4 stack !!!
Colors do look good , likewise the detail .
Only thing i might change is give the HL and 1/ 4 tones a bit more depth ....but gentle separately .

very nice one , TFS Andreas

[keith mitchell]

Marc this is an amazing shot that made me think dof as soon as I viewed it(which looks like it worked very well),the action you have caught is super and only your critique made me look at the tail,love it.

Keith.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Marc -- This is brilliant ! I just gazed it for abt 15 minutes and now writing the comment . The clipped tail is not bothering me at all , ye some more space the foot but I simply loved this fantastic image . IQ is top notch as well , superbly done !!

TFS !

BTW Are you on instagram ? i just happen to remember a similar image recently on insta, tried searching but not able to find it .

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Marc - What a great image! Love the action, low pov and dof. Agree with your self-critique but still an image I would be proud to have in my files.

TFS,
Rachel

[Alex Becker]

Hi Marc -- what a cool frame. Yes some more room and a not clipped tail in an ideal world would be nice but as you said thats the cost of a prime lens and the IQ here is very nice so its a tradeoff. Techs as mentioned are great. As Rachel said, an image I would be ecstatic to have. TFS

[Marc Mol]

Appreciate the positive comments everyone, many thanks.

BTW Are you on instagram ? i just happen to remember a similar image recently on insta, tried searching but not able to find it .

I do have an Instagram a/c but don't really use or post on it Haseeb.

[haseeb badar]

Thanks for the reply, if convenient for you than do start posting on instagram , the world do needs to see these marvelous images of yours.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Very dynamic image here Marc, despite the cut tail - we all have our "prime lens" moments
Love that there's still amber in the eyes, so hard to get this behaviour in good light.

[Gabriela Plesea]

This is super cute, Marc!

Wonderful moment captured, those little ones make me smile from ear to ear, what fun they are having:)

Techs are great and you have managed to maintain good SS to freeze action. Love the title too. Sorry about that bit of tail missing, if you decide to print maybe not a bad idea to "borrow" a tip of a tail from another image, surely you have a few from this sighting.

Really enjoyed viewing and I am certain there's much, much more in your folders...right?

Kind regards,

[Stuart Philpott]

What an amazing capture Marc it seems utterly unique to me your framing is amazing,sure I hear the self critique,but it just is so minor given the fun and spirit captured.
what a joy to view!!

stu

[Mike Poole]

Late to the party Marc, sorry, but had to come back to this one. I can only echo the previous comments as to what a great piece of action you captured here, they've given you a nice composition and you clearly made the most of it.
Nice work

Mike