Dug this one out of my Kalahari archives of last year. We were parked at a waterhole at dawn, when I noticed this lone male cheetah approaching across an open patch of dry riverbed.
I tried to position myself to make the most out of the golden morning light, but as so often happens, the cat changed direction and went ahead of our vehicle instead of behind it like I anticipated from its initial line. I didn't want to maneuver the vehicle again for fear of completely startling the cat, so I made the most of the sighting. I like how the side-lighting came out though, although I would have loved some light on those amber eyes.
Techs:
Canon 7D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 220mm
f5.6 @ 1/320 SS @ ISO-500
Exposure bias +0.3
Taken in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa
Also like the side light here Morkel. It's subtle enough to illuminate but doesn't blow out the detail. Lighter eyes would be nice but don't know how natural it would look if you went in and tweaked them a bit. Fine as posted for me regardless.
The side light on this one really works well. I like the way his belly feathers and wiskers are illuminated. I also like the way the color of his eye show up and are quite striking. He appears to be checking you out.
Like the lighting on this one Morkel. Great job of bringing out the detail on the shadow side. Also like the sense of movement with the motion blur on the paws.