Lovely light and an interesting pose here. The colours in the background really add to those of the animal and the rimlight is sweet. However, I would have liked a bit more room at the bottom of the frame. Regarding the pose: it is very interesting...but I don't feel the movement. Like with many jumping sequences the slope and leg position are the most important. Here you can see that it is hanging in the air, but you don't "feel" the jump because the animal is already on its way down...and the legs are also all pointing in that direction. A raising position would have been much stronger IMO.
Guys,
I am surprised that you nailed it at 1/250th of sec. I think you need a degree or so counter clock wise rotation.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi
Agree with u sabyasachi that it needs a little rotation.
We were even more surprised with the sharpness in this shot as it was hand held at 500mm.
we tried to shoot when it was at the highest position of the jump and thus moving the least this was the best we could manage.
This image made it to the semi final stage of the Wildlife Photographer Of the Year '08
along with another of our image of an Asiatic lion
Sabyasachi had a good point on the sharpness. I agree with Jasper that more room on the bottom would have been nice.
I can see why it went to the semi's - nice work.
Nice rimlight, head turn, and pleasing color tones.
Nice rimlighting, one big limitation of the D40 is it it's slow 3fps. Otherwise you may have captured this buck on its way up.
Agree with u guys,
yes marc the 2.5 fps on our d40 is a bit limiting at times when we want to capture peak action.
we feel that 5-6 fps is just about right for these situations.
(we can only dream of buying such equipment right now)