For interest' sake I am sharing tonight another image from a special sighting I had on the 16th of December 2022. For those who have not seen my previous posts I would like to give you a bit of feedback: this cheetah mom made a kill very close to my home, I happened to be in my vehicle at the time and observing but unable to capture the 'action' because her cub was in close proximity. Did not want to cause any stress to the animals, they looked rather thin and in dire need of a meal. Was able to watch the chase in my rearview mirror, it all happened in seconds. Moments later I saw mom dragging the little lamb to a spot of shade, the cub joined her and as soon as I saw them relax a bit I repositioned the vehicle in order to have a better view. The little one was very excited and kept biting the kill and trying to drag it as if it was still alive while mom was catching her breath and watching cub practice 'life skills'.
Minutes later a family of warthogs arrived... parents and a few youngsters. Was surprised to see them surround the cheetahs and face them head-on and also heard them make a number of threatening grunts and growls I was not familiar with. The cheetah mom tried to defend the kill and protect her cub for a while but eventually decided to walk away. She looks aggressive in this frame but I am sure she was also scared and just reacting to the immediate threat, keeping the warthogs at bay while the cub got away.
Not my best image of this sighting but felt like sharing it, nevertheless. More DoF needed but in the heat of the moment I forgot about techs, was still busy setting up my new camera at the time and also, totally unprepared for this sighting. In terms of PP work the usual, LR and PSCC. I have no other software and my workflow is very basic. Pushed things a little in terms of colour to please the audience
Techs: Nikon Z9
Nikon 500mm F4
ISO 6400
+2/3 EV
F6.3
1/2500s
Hope you all have a lovely week-end, thank you so much for taking the time to view and for your kind comments on my previous images,
Fight or Flight
Reply With Quote
