Patrolling the Mara

[Marc Mol]

5.17pm
The famed 3 Cheetah bros on border patrol just as break in the thunderstorm filled this golden grassland.

D700 70-200 f/2.8VRII 1/640s f/6.3 ISO800@120mm. Cropped to pano. Oct 2010.

C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

[Ken Watkins]

Marc,

I have to say this really does not work for me, sorry.

Nice scenery but the "muddled" positions of the Cheetah really do not add much, all in a line would have been something different alltogether.

[Marc Mol]

Upon reflection Ken, you're right.
I think the lighting alone is not enough to save this one.

[Hilary Hann]

Marc, I like the dense blue of the approaching storm contrasted with the golden grasses. Keeping a 2/3 - 1/3 ratio works instinctively. The slight hint of rain falling is nice as is the low hill on the left. For anyone who has visited the Mara it gives an immediate sense of place, however, to take it to a really great image it probably needs a little more focus. The cheetah are, of necessity, small in the frame although the patrolling activity is shown well, i.e. all three looking in different directions. How you could have incorporated the cheetahs and the scene to make a stronger image I don't know. Larger animals with a more controlled position would have given more strength to the landscape, but for my eye the overall image of cheetah patrolling is shown quite well. I would put it into a really nice documentary/travel photo category which shows some animal behaviour in their environment rather than a show stopping exhibition print.

Having seen quite a few of your Mara/Serengeti images now, I would say that you must have a pretty cool collection of animal behaviour shots and a great variety of environmental portraits … most of which cause me some (great!!) jealousy!!

[Harshad Barve]

I have mix opinion , would have loved to see Cheetah slightly bigger in size , Nice colors of Mara though
TFS

[Steve Canuel]

Nice capture of some beautiful, wide open space. Kind of agree with Ken here although I think a better position/look of even just the middle cheetah could have made a big difference. Clone out the cheetahs and post it in the Landscape forum .

[Harshad Barve]

Clone out the cheetahs and post it in the Landscape forum .

Not a bad idea

[Hilary Hann]

Nice capture of some beautiful, wide open space. Kind of agree with Ken here although I think a better position/look of even just the middle cheetah could have made a big difference. Clone out the cheetahs and post it in the Landscape forum .

You could post this in the landscape forum with the cheetah included. I don't think they exclude animals there, in fact I know they don't as I've included many animals in my landscapes. (I know Steve's comment probably was tongue in cheek regarding the cloning, but it would be worth seeing what the mods over there thought)

[Dumay de Boulle]

Love the landscape crop and the colors work beautifully...Feel the Cheetahs are a bit lost in all this...But I like the idea!

[Morkel Erasmus]

I agree with the general consensus here Marc...the cheetahs needed to be both bigger in the frame and more distinctly recognisable for this to work as you intended it. It's a shame cause the approaching storm and golden grass make for a super setting

next time eh?

[Steven Kersting]

I think it would still convey the scene and would make the chetahs larger with a 4/5 crop loosing some from 3 sides keeping the bottom.

Lovely scene though.