I found this one on one of my external drives, when looking for another shot. I'd always liked it but my PP skills a year ago couldn't make it look right in the rather poor light. I think it looks okay now, but our own children are always pretty. Of course the Maasai Mara, in 2008.
Hope the size is okay - difficult to decide what size to post a square crop.
Sony A700 + Minolta 300/4 + 1.4xTC f/7.1 1/500s ISO 400
Paul, I like the intense stares from both parent and cub. Comp wise, a bit tight LRC, and seems like you may have nipped the tip of the tail. Im not sure if a vertical would work. Still, a great sighting that I would wish for.
Any shot of an attentive mother and cub, gets my attention, so well done for that. Perhaps a landscape crop would suit better here and could you extract any light from the eyes at all?
TFS
Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated and I have to admit I agree with them. Unfortunately for an ordinary vertical (not enough room and the subject is too wide) or an ordinary landscape (I put the cub dead centre, which was pretty stupid, but I was overexcited since these were my first cubs this young. We learn, right?) neither will work.
Just for fun, here is how it looks with a little more room. I had to add a little canvas above to create room, but the left side is too close to focus to even attempt that, and I just feel it would be taking it too far to do that. I also brightened the eyes a bit and cloned out a bit more OOF grass while I was at it. Since I had to do a new conversion because recovering more from the eyes from the TIFF I had didn't look possible, I also kept the grass lighter this time. Personally I think the cheetahs are too central, but the extra room does the picture a lot of good.
Here is the best vertical crop option that keeps the tail in. Lose a lot of the other two cubs, but that's maybe not a bad thing. However, they are very close to the left edge now.
Thanks very much, Harshad. I shot RAW and horizontal. Cub more or less dead center. Here it is, with the canvas added above. Maybe I should just leave it like this! :-)
I personally prefer version 2. I think the gaze and poses of the mom and cub are strong enough to carry the centered comp. Love the serious look and fur cap and cape of the little one :).