Mom, we want to go with you.

[Jay Shah]

After waiting anxiously for mom for more than 20-30 mins, were not ready to wait again while mom went for a hunt again. So they were keen to follow her while looking at the breakfast in the distance.

Special thanks to Gabriela and Jon for their very helpful comments on the last posting from the same series. One thing that I have tried to do this time, based on their suggestion, is to choose Adobe Neutral profile in ACR Raw. I think that really helps with the noise as here I did not see need for NR. I also have tried to pay attention to color cast. Looking forward to C&C.

Please note this was very early in the morning so there was not much light as you can see from the specs. I would have loved to go for f8, but then it would have come at the expense of SS, so made conscious decision for specs.

Nikon D500 Tamron 70-200 2.8 @ 105 mm
f4.5, 1/2000 s, ISO 5600

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Jay

This is such a nice surprise, was hoping to see more images from this encounter.

I like how you processed this one. Must say it looks good for ISO 5600 on the D500. I see no colour casts and I prefer this "lighter" version to the first image posted.

Love the interaction. Composition is good, it would have been perfect if you had a tad more space on the left. But with so many cheetahs it's not easy to frame, LOL.

The first cheetah on the left has a very naughty face...They must have been so mischievous, those young ones - I feel sorry for Mom:)

Tech look good and I think you made the right choices, F8 would have been great but like you said, SS comes first when there's plenty of action. So I am happy with this as presented, it's also sharp where it matters most - very well done

Kind regards,

[Arthur Morris]

This is quite lovely. Love the soft light and the animals of course. Amazing with five good to excellent head angles. I find my self wishing for less room below and more above -- that would have been easy to do by moving the AF point down a bit. It looks as if it might need just a bit of CW rotation ...All in all it is one very sweet image.

a

[Jay Shah]

Thank you Artie for kind words. Means a lot coming from you. Noted and agree with your comments. With the image I have, will try to achieve what you suggested by cropping FG. Afraid not much room at the top.

[Jay Shah]

Hi Gabriela, I am very glad to hear PP was better with this image thanks to coaching by you and Jon. Thanks for kind words. Much appreciated.

[greg cowle]

The paw across mother is great, and I really like that they both have their tails up in the moment of capture.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Jay -- Lovely encounter , getting 5 Cheetahs and all looking active makes it a very nice frame. PP is certainly a lot better and I like the soft muted colours here. Agree with the straightening suggestion.

I dont exactly know the capabilities of D500 but it doesn't produce very pleasing IQ at high ISO's , i see a lot of grains on the cheetah's and in the grass around them. But there is a lot of improvement from your previous post from the same sighting .

TFS !

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Jay, a lovely image showing off the cheetahs well with nice poses too. Agree with Haseeb reg IQ but you did quiet well. Colour palette is very nice.

[John Mack]

Looks like you had a blast photographing this group. Nice poses on all the cheetahs. Details look very good. The soft light is nice as well.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A fine looking image Jay, I really like the family group. I have to confess I am a little bit puzzled, the cub directly behind the mother has a very dark leg and it appears to be a different colour to any other, is this due to shade?

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jay, I have to say, I'm in agreement with Haseeb's comment about the 'graininess' of the subject, but less evident in the surrounding grasses, but that might be because they are so light, did you 'lift' the Cheetahs, ie lighten them? I can see your point about DoF and ISO, but if well exposed ie ETTR then I may have expected a bit more out of the file.

If and when you find a group like this, it's always best to stick with them and shadow them from a distance in case they are hunting, but often a sighting like this will attract more vehicles and give away the sighting to their prey.

TFS
Steve