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Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator
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Always a pleasure to see your work Gabriela - whenever you can get to it. And this one is no exception. Nothing plain about such a lovely portrait either. Lovely detail, great rich tones and colours on the cheetah and a great soft background to provide good contrast. Lovely look she is giving you as well. The composition is simple and straighforward and I think works well here. Lots to like here and no nits from me.
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Hi Gabriela - You had some nice light and she let you get pretty close judging by the gear. Nice job on the dof. Excellent detail, especially in the blacks of the face. The squarish crop works. Only thing I would do if it were mine is to darken the blueish specular hl intersecting the cheek on the left. Nice one.
TFS,
Rachel
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A gerat stare, and I agree 'petting' would not be top of my list of priorities here either!
I like the fact you've gone for plenty of DoF here, but I think a little more may have helped as the nose seems sharper than the eyes to me. I obviously don't know how mobile you can be in these kind of situations, but I would have preferred yo uto have web in a position where the light was coming either from behind you, or from the side where the body is, so keeping the near side of the face to you lit with the far side in shadow.
I hope you get more opportunities to spend time with her - must be a wonderful experience to be so up close and personal, and the frame filling crop here really reflects that - makes a great change from long telephoto portraiture.
Mike
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Hi Gabriela -- Works fine for me , look at the details , incredible. Feels like it is coming out of the monitor. Excellent work to get the details in the blacks and nice choice of DOF. Loved it .
TFS !
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Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator
I will look at those specular lights Rachel, did not realise they were so bright until you told me - thanks my friend
Mike, I forgot to mention something in my intro: this Cheetah has a very unusual nose, kind of rough (but moist at the same time, and very shiny). I guess I should go back on sharpening on the nose a bit? Regarding DoF, I rarely use the 70-200 lens so I admit I was guessing at the time, thought F10 was enough. Not much time to experiment, cheetah was walking away and I was following, she turned around and looked in my direction for a few moments so I quickly took a few frames. One of her cubs was nibbling on my gear so I might have been a bit distracted. It might look like great fun, getting close to those animals. But in terms of photography it is quite challenging, LOL. You have to constantly watch what is going on around you and not let an adult approach you from behind (especially when lying down for a nice POV). Cubs run around and play a lot, so when things get a bit rough they start growling and hissing. Mom then thinks they are in trouble so the first thing she does is check you out. And man she looks straight into your eyes with a penetrating stare second to none...Maybe I should post one of those images I took of her while looking at me like that, let me see what I got in those folders...
Thought you guys and girls might find this boring. Surprised and at the same time so pleased with your comments, thank you so much for taking the time to view
Kind regards,
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Wildlife Moderator
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Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator
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Wildlife Moderator
I just feel the 'fine' hairs are a bit coarse as a close portrait????
Some good news, I ordered the 850 and accessories from Nikon but they are waiting for stock, probably first week in December so hold thumbs please.
You won't regret it, saw it action in Norway, nice bit of kit, you'll love it, but the 'Darkside' is getting strong, as it's pull one if not two Mods very recently now!!!
Err...one more thing...next time you come to Africa I plan to introduce you to the "dark side"
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.” - Yoda
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Story Sequences Moderator and Wildlife Moderator