Okay everybody - let's dig in!

[Morkel Erasmus]

The second posting from the cheetah family feasting. They nearly finished the springbok by the time the first other tourists joined us.

Tried to show how they were wolfing down the kill (probably weary of others coming to claim their hard work). Used fill flash to get warmer light into the shade of the tree they were under.

All comments welcome! This is pretty much full frame at a focusing distance of 4.97 meters. :)

Techs:
Canon 7D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 150mm
f8.0 @ 1/160 SS @ ISO-320
pop-up flash used
removed funny glare from the eye of the cheetah looking up

[Rachel Hollander]

Morkel - Very nice capture. The red face and the gaze of that cheetah make it for me. Wish the one wasn't wearing a collar but understand the need.

TFS,
Rachel

[Harshad Barve]

terrific capture Morkelbhai , nice flashwork too, red faced Cheetah makes this grand , big congrats
TFS

[Marc Mol]

Nice documented image portraying their need to tuck in fast and finish before other predators venture in.
Good use of fill flash also Morkel.
TFS

[Steve Canuel]

Nice how the cheetahs frame the prey around the sides and back. The eye of the springbok has a dead look (as it should) and the line from that eye, head, and neck (as well as the leg) leads right to where the action is.

[Alfred Forns]

Strong image !! The one animal with all that blood on his face and the springbok's face does it form me !! Just sweet all around !!! Like it a lot !!

[Markus Jais]

Fantastic scene very well captured. Is there a research project going on? The one cat on the left has a collar.

Markus

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the kind comments everyone. most of the cheetah females who have cubs are tracked by collars in the Kgalagadi - this helps them keep tabs on how many cubs make it and also helps them to manage the cheetah numbers in the park...the park has even been successful in transferring cheetahs to other reserves in South Africa where cheetahs have historically been found. the research is headed up by Dr Gus Mills who has dedicated most of his life to this national park.

[sandy richards]

Really excellent!
The intent look and bloody face are very compelling.
Sweet!

Sandy r

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, the trip has been fruitful, great.

Good image showing good interaction, by the look they were very hungry, no fighting!!!

Like the comp and the intense strare, however, looking at the techs I can't help feel that dropping the F stop, increasing the ISO quite a bit, the image really would have benefitted. As it would have avoided some of the movement and given a sharper image.

TFS
Steve ;)

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

It is nearly always very difficult to portray a "feeding frenzy". I think this may have looked better with more space.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks guys

Steve I quite like the fact that the sharpest point is the bloodied face of the one looking up, the rest should look 'frenzied' as they very much were :)

Ken - more space would make the road more obvious :)

[ken dyball]

thanks guys

Steve I quite like the fact that the sharpest point is the bloodied face of the one looking up, the rest should look 'frenzied' as they very much were :)

Ken - more space would make the road more obvious :)

Hi Morkel, i agree on both counts here!!.......well done

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Morkel,
A higher ISO would have been better. Cropping from the top so that the tail is not visible would look even better. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Morkel Erasmus]

Morkel,
A higher ISO would have been better.

I'm curious as to why? IQ looks good, it's sharp where it needs to be? remember with f8.0 at 5m from me the DOF was also going to be quite shallow given that the whole viewfinder is filled with animals...:)

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I'm curious as to why? IQ looks good, it's sharp where it needs to be? remember with f8.0 at 5m from me the DOF was also going to be quite shallow given that the whole viewfinder is filled with animals...:)

Higher ISO for higher shutter speed. Your shutter speed of 1/160 is not fast enough to arrest motion.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Higher ISO for higher shutter speed. Your shutter speed of 1/160 is not fast enough to arrest motion.

I see your point, but as stated I wanted the one looking up sharp and he was motionless for a moment...having the rest slightly blurred enhances the moment I experienced IMHO :)

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Morkel,
You are the artist and every artist creates images for his/her liking. I didn't knew that you wanted the faces of all others blurred. If this was your intention, then your objectives would have been better achieved with a shallow depth of field ie. by using f5.6 instead of f8.

[Morkel Erasmus]

not necessarily OOF, but blurred - with one sharper than the rest. the DOF range at f8.0 was fine for me here, especially since my lens is sharpest at that aperture :)

[Alfred Forns]

Morkel shutter speed wise is dangerous ground going so slow, if you have any sudden movement it will be toast ... and difference in dof between f 8.0 and 5.6 is minimal.

For raising ISO I would take the camera into consideration and yours performs well, would not hesitate to use at 800 at all as long as you don't underexpose, will clean up nicely !!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Al. I don't mind using higher ISOs on my camera, I've got a few from this sighting at ISO 1000 when I didn't use flash, I tried every possible setting and combination here since I had about 2 hours with them :)

here I was restricted to my pop-up flash which has a max SS sync speed of 1/250, which meant I had to bump ISO higher to prevent overexposure

[Steve Kaluski]

Morkel, sorry I am now getting lost here.

Al has clarified in more depth my overall comment to your image, but you say you bumped the ISO even higher, however it's only ISO 320? Just trying to understand the thinking here:)

[Morkel Erasmus]

sorry Steve - by higher I meant "higher quality image" thus lower ISO - just typing too fast for my brain :)

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Morkel,
Your justifications have left me confused.

not necessarily OOF, but blurred - with one sharper than the rest. the DOF range at f8.0 was fine for me here, especially since my lens is sharpest at that aperture :)

The very definition of depth of field means zone of acceptable sharpness. A narrow aperture (f8 vs f5.6 or f5) will result in greater area of the scene sharp, with other things being equal. Lowering the aperture to f5.6 or f5 would have resulted in the dof reducing by 4-5 inches infront of the subject (assuming focus is on the head of the cheetah)

However, you want a lower shutter speed to reduce sharpness and increase motion blur. You have used a flash here (flash also results in a sharper definition of the subject by outlining the motion blur).

I guess, the intuitive decisions of an artist becomes difficult for others to decipher.

As far as I am concerned, I would focus on getting a sharp image else the advantage of higher mega pixels is lost. According to Canon, with these new cameras, one needs a higher shutter speed to get similar sharpness. However, we are all different and our different thought process perhaps makes this an interesting place.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Alfred Forns]

Morkel Bottom line for this one .......... using such a low shutter speed makes little sense and would sacrifice dof for more shutter speed ... having such a low ISO its a no brainer to raise ISO.

Image Quality wise you can throw all the theories out the window if the image is not sharp, any movement form the cats would have been a total blur ... maybe my signature line makes sense here :)

[James Shadle]

Morkel,
If I'm following you here, you wanted to create an image that did not show the road your subjects where near.
If you where in another location, a looser crop would make for a stronger image.
You wanted the springbok sharp and the cats with some motion blur, but not out if focus.
This worked well, however you must work the odds and shoot a lot hoping that the image does not display too much motion blur.

If the above is the case, mission accomplished!

I choose the shutter speed, aperture and ISO that I need to realize my vision.

The pop up flash at F8 is not very affective at anything accept short distances.
Why not adjust the white balance for a warmer look?
Now back in the film days that was another story, I used flash all the time in shade and heavy overcast to warm the image up!

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks guys...

suffice it to say I shot a LOT of images at different settings for different effects. I used flash sometimes, other times not. I used anything from ISO250-1600 because I had the luxury, time and prime position at the sighting to play around.

Cpt James :) - they were lying IN the road, and framing wider would make it more obvious that it is, in fact, a gravel road and not just a piece of shrubless Kalahari dirt :)

[RakeshDhareshwar]

The only nit is the collar ( something you could not avoid ) . Otherwise a perfect image for me .

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks Rakesh...in most of my other photos I tried to avoid including the mother and focused on the un-collared cubs...