After Cheetah Cub 1, I suppose I am committed to deliver Cheetah Cubs 2. Taken only 15 minutes later but the clouds made for better shooting conditions. Windy, though.
Sony A700 + Minolta 300/4 1.4x TC f/9 1/500s ISO 400
Cloned out a couple of grass stalks protruding into the belly and a couple of leaves under the chin. Decided to leave there rest as was although I blurred the long stuff a bit.
I would suggest a smidge more room behind the tail is needed but OK as you presented. I would crop down more from the top to draw better attention to your subject. Not so much to make it appear cramped lke the tail, just enough to accentuate the animal better. I would say about 1/2 the distance from the head to the top should be cropped.
Great sighting Paul. I live in Africa, and dont even have an adult cheetah in my files, and you show off with a cub. I like the concentrated pose, with natural colours on the cub. I agree with Robert taking some off the top.
Agree with the previous comments. A nice looking cub. The fur on the back is interesting. It is good that it had climbed on the rock. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. Crop off the top is a really good suggestion. A sliver more space for the tail is available since, originally shown, this was slightly cropped all round. Here's Robert's suggestion, with a little bit cropped from the right too (this is a quickie-job layering the version above on to an uncropped but unsharpened version, so hopefully there is not a join visible!). A bigger crop from the right (bringing the cub's head on to the imaginary third line) also works better than I thought it would.
Last edited by Paul Taylor; 03-07-2010 at 12:09 AM.
One of nature's most beautiful babies, one that has eluded me my whole life! Have shot cheetah in every for and pose, but never yet seen a wild cub in its hairy stage! Love, the second post is super!