Cheetah kill

[Hilary Hann]

Although I have lots of sorting and cataloguing to do, it has been so long since I've had new stuff to post that I thought I'd throw some images on as I continue going through the files.

These 3 cheetah brothers are well known for taking down adult topi and zebra. We were fortunate to find them in the minutes after the kill, during the lunch hours when no other vehicles were out and about. It gave us about 1 1/2 hours alone with them before the first 4x4 appeared in the distance, at which time we left.

I have quite a number of different images from the series, as would be expected given the length of time, but thought this was a nice one to start with.

5DMk2: 24-105 @ 60mm; ISO 400; 1/320 @ f10
Hand Held

[Steve Canuel]

Welcome back. I like the low perspective here and the just visible mountains in the BG. Looks like a pretty good sized meal for a cheetah. The clouds add some nice subtle contrast to the white BG.

[Steve Uffman]

now that is an action shot! pretty amazing...Also, I visited your website. lots of great stuff...clearly not your first rodeo!

where in Africa? I had three weeks there a year ago and anxious to get back

[Ofer Levy]

This image tells a story which is great! I think the pano works well.

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Steve C, Steve U … taken on Bila Shaka, Masai Mara Reserve, Thanks Ofer. Appreciate all the comments.

[Tom Graham]

I simply love it.
Your just right lowish perspective. 60mm, were you lying down on the vehicle passenger side floor?
The one looking up with mouth open, the other two in symmetry with heads buried in the kopi. So very interesting.
Great view of the kopi stretched out.
Great sense of place, a good landscape all by itself.
The daylight is perfect for exposing the action and for the clouds and background. The flat, not tilted, horizon.
Perfect exposure, great color and sharpness front to back, good choice of f10.
Only teeny tiny nit, the up cheetah perhaps a catch light in his eye. But hey, look harder, you can find it (photoshop)
Again, this shot and a couple others and it was a SUPER photo safari!!! (rain or shine!!!)

Tom

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Tom, appreciate the thoughtful comments. I do have some others with better catch light but not sure that the poses were complimentary. Perhaps it was the low perspective with the higher sun which made the eyes lack a little. I did take many over the time we were with them, some lying down in the back of the vehicle which is open, some using whatever means I could think of so that I had some variations. Bit more golden light with some iconic species would have been nice, but any safari is a good one. I'm sure you'll have better light in February … look forward to seeing the many photos you'll get!! :)

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Hilary, a real little better this one, it's this story coupled with the excellent POV that makes it for me. Having the smaller lens has really helped in the whole concept and all the elements are composed very nicely.

Not a lover of horizons going through bodies, however, I think you can get away with this one. Might just try and open up the light a bit from below the horizon line and include the Cheetahs head.

Congrats on this one.

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hilary - you know how I love "animalscapes", and for me this is your best post on BPN to date. Love the low angle you achieved, and for me the horizon splitting the cheetah is not a nit as it helps us get the depth of the East African landscape in perspective. No problem when going out in midday when the cloud cover breaks the harshness of the light, that is cheetah-hunting-prime-time :wh:)

Wonderful image that I wish was mine.

Now for a few suggestions...
I hope you don't mind - but I did a quick rework, as I felt there was more drama/detail in the sky than was apparent in your presentation.

I used a quick "landscapes" trick in doing a duplicate layer, adjusting exposure down to get more detail from the sky, then blended it back with the original layer using a luminosity mask on the blue channel. This avoids getting the nasty halos you would achieve when doing a normal selection of the sky and attempting to reduce the exposure on that portion.

I also quickly selected the upright cheetah's head and face and did a levels adjustment layer to bring it to life.

Would love to know what you think?

[Steve Kaluski]

IMHO Morkel I think it looks a bit 'over cooked' to warm in the reds for me, I feel Hilary's OP was more faithful if the conditions were overcast, but it's all subjective.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hilary - Love this. The POV, DOF, behavior captured and expansive views of the Mara all combine to make this a fantastic image. Congrats and well done.

Good suggestion about lightening the head. The clouds in Morkel's post do have more punch but only you can know which is more realistic of the mood.

Keep the images coming. Looks like a great trip despite the rains.

TFS,
Rachel

[Todd Frost]

Pano crop works well for this image. Nice moment captured. I like the re-post, but as mentioned you have to decide on the faithful colors or if you wnat to maintain that faithfulness (it's art afterall not journalism). well done.
TFS
Todd

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Morkel for taking time with this image for me. I like the added drama from the sky but might tone down the warmth a little. I will play with the techniques you describe as it may work better than some of the luminosity masks which I use (none on this image, however).

Thanks Rachel, I also like the clouds with some punch. Sometimes it can be hard to be objective about ones own images.

Todd, I agree so much with what you've said … art, not journalism. Sometimes it is hard to recall the colour of the day as what I saw isn't what someone else on the scene may have interpreted the colour as being. Even journalism is problematic. My husband is somewhat colour blind, does he rely on the camera's take on colour or his dicey interpretation.

[Morkel Erasmus]

fair enough Hilary :)

I did not intend to adjust the warmth, I think it came with masking the blue channel, so it's easy to correct that again. I do feel (not being there) that I am correct in my assessment that you could pick up much more detail in the sky with your naked eye than what the camera recorded...remember you metered off the foreground so the exposure is not spot on for the sky. This is where these techniques come in IMHO. If the sky was entirely blown you would have had to take seperate exposures in an HDR-type application, but here it is easy to just recover detail from the overexposed areas.

I always try to enhance the dynamic range that the camera recorded precisely because the eyes see much more dynamic range than our most advanced sensors can. I know many people say that the digital camera age has made photos more manipulated - but on the other hand think about it, did Fuji Velvia film REALLY capture the scene TRUE to what you saw? No - it gave it a certain colour cast which looks very nice, but also couldn't capture the entire dynamic range. So I'm all for enhancements which make the scene "more real" in the end - but the photographer is the ultimate judge. Interesting point you make regarding being colour blind...

Long tirade - but it is of course only my humble opinion

[Hilary Hann]

Morkel, I agree with what you've said. Trying to replicate what our eye saw can be so difficult and I'll do what I can to achieve it. Sometimes it is hard to know which technique best suits the image. I am grateful for all the opinions and advice, really helpful.

[Tom Graham]

I'm sure there are studies on our color memory. Every go to a paint store with a color -in mind- that you wanted to duplicate at home? How'd that work for you?
Our color -matching- is good but memory is bad.
And memory is further complicated because our brain does its own thing correcting the real scene to an "acceptable" white balance for the scene.
To know the real scene color you need to utilize something like UniWB. UniWB is a bit involved (I've never tried it). Instead it might be interesting to after every series of "important" images simply hold up and shoot a gray card.
Although actually when all is said and done, I prefer to make the cool/warmth of the image to my liking reflecting reality and my emotion of the scene.

Tom

[Hilary Hann]

Thanks Tom, like so many things, colour perception in photos can be very subjective. I'm not sure that taking it as far as grey cards for wildlife is necessary, unlike commercial/advertising photography where colour depiction is so critical. I suppose that it is one of the advantages of a forum such as this … if enough people think the colour looks 'real' as well as 'plausible' it is probably close to the reality we see in the wild. I'm excluding some of the extremes here, sometimes you just have to be there to believe the sunset was throwing that particular colour cast on the animals!!

[DanWalters]

The low angle really creates a intimate view of what life must be like for these cheetahs.

[James Ownby]

The picture is great, well done - it shows why Africa is a unique place for the nature photographer. But I have one nit. Unless you really cropped, you must have been very close to the cheetah to shoot at 60mm. Are there any rules about how close one can approach an animal at its kill? The cheetahs I've seen in Tanzania were rather nonchalant about vehicles, but still ...?

[Hilary Hann]

We were at the required distance from the cats and were the only vehicle present. We ended up having the cheetahs come and rest in our vehicles shade, one at a time.

You make a fair point but it is one our driver was quite sensitive about.

[James Ownby]

We ended up having the cheetahs come and rest in our vehicles shade, one at a time.

Lions & their cubs do the same at Ngorongoro Crater. At one mid-day stop our van, along with others, was surrounded by a pride. Each time one of the tour vans wanted to start their motor and continue on, the driver had to radio those vans in front and behind to ask if a cub was under his vehicle at the moment!

[Harshad Barve]

Gotta love this Hilary , excellent capture
TFS