Playful Speedsters

Gallery: WildlifePosted October 7, 2012265 views16 comments

Here's another from the amazing sighting we had in February of 3 cheetah siblings at play. The one started chasing the other (the 3rd one joined later).

I was shooting nice shots of them walking along the green riverbed when they were still quite far away - hence I had the converter on and was shooting wide open (overcast varying light).

When it all happened, it was over in a matter of seconds and I didn't have time to stop down for fear of missing the action.

This is one of the shots that worked out...the DOF was too shallow for many of the other shots, and they came too close so I ended up chopping off all kinds of limbs. So we learn with every opportunity missed!

Have you missed some shots of exciting moments because you weren't prepared?

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
1.4x teleconverter
f5.6 @ 1/800 SS @ ISO-1400
Almost full frame, had to rotate/crop for levelling and ended up being a tad tight on top.

Comments

16 comments

Comment posted by Ramamohan Pai on October 7, 2012 at 5:31 PM

Morkel - Great Frame. The young Cheetahs playing is such a fine scene with mud being splashed around, with one of the eyes closed and all that, make this one extra special.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 550 Posts, 9037 Comments

Comment posted by Nathan Apodaca on October 7, 2012 at 6:45 PM

I love it! Glad you caught a frame to be happy with (at least I am)...

Registered on November 16, 2011, 67 Posts, 1127 Comments

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on October 7, 2012 at 6:54 PM

Pretty sweet photo, Morkel! I love the dust in the air, and especially that one closed eye. Keep the cheetah pics comin'!!

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments

Comment posted by Guy Runco on October 7, 2012 at 7:26 PM

Great capture Morkel - I do wish there was a bit more space up top, as you've already mentioned, but still an excellent shot.

Registered on September 9, 2008, 77 Posts, 705 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on October 7, 2012 at 8:59 PM

Wonderful action Morkel. I like the shallow dof and the dust all the action has kicked up. Just a beautiful image.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Ajit Huilgol on October 8, 2012 at 6:23 AM

Another 'Pick of the Week' entry, Morkel! Fabulous!

Registered on December 19, 2008, 302 Posts, 2055 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on October 8, 2012 at 10:35 AM

Great interaction and clarity !
At times, every one has to face problem of plenty.
Jagdeep Rajput

Registered on April 29, 2008, 686 Posts, 2857 Comments

Comment posted by Wick Smith on October 8, 2012 at 11:56 AM

That's a great photo. Looks like you were prepared to me! Well done.

Registered on June 12, 2009, 91 Posts, 379 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on October 8, 2012 at 5:46 PM

Superb action sense with flying tails and dust clouds make this a real keeper. Thanks for sharing!

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Ingrid Vekemans on October 9, 2012 at 11:25 AM

Beautiful action shot!

Grt, Ingrid.

Registered on August 2, 2010, 138 Posts, 780 Comments

Comment posted by Cam Held on October 9, 2012 at 4:18 PM

Great shot, no nits from me! I've definitely missed shots from being unprepared, but this certainly wouldn't strike me as a moment of you being unprepared had you not mentioned it!
-Cam

Registered on November 12, 2009, 59 Posts, 398 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Fricke on October 10, 2012 at 2:26 PM

Great capture Morkel! I like the action and the interaction between them and the image really highlights their long tails. The background color and shallow DOF also highlights them nicely.

Just a couple months ago I was leaving my house and this tan blur goes flying across the driveway, I stopped and looked off to the side in the scrub oak and spotted a beautiful bobcat sitting about 20 feet away. He was looking up in the trees, so I thought he may be hunting something. I pulled my camera out of the back seat and pointed it at him just as he leapt about 12 feet in the air after a squirrel, which then jumped across to another tree. The bobcat basically launched himself up the 12 feet onto the bottom side of a branch and then in one fluid motion pounced 10 feet over to the other tree and nabbed the squirrel, all about 15 feet away from me. I got 4 100% blurry images as I had been shooting landscape shots and the camera was set on AV Priority, 100 ISO, f16, and the shutter speed was about 1/10sec. But it was really neat to see the incredible athletic power and speed of the bobcat on the hunt!

Registered on January 19, 2007, 133 Posts, 1448 Comments

Comment posted by Mario Moreno on October 15, 2012 at 1:01 PM

Nice action captured Morkel ! Love the setting and DOF

Registered on January 24, 2012, 163 Posts, 369 Comments

Comment posted by Basri Akcasoy on October 17, 2012 at 1:19 PM

Wonderful Cheetah shot. TFS.

Registered on February 16, 2012, 118 Posts, 767 Comments

Comment posted by Joe James on October 20, 2012 at 5:10 PM

Stunning shot Morkel!

Registered on November 20, 2009, 89 Posts, 808 Comments

Comment posted by Sachin Rai on November 6, 2012 at 12:43 PM

Beauty.. A typical cat expression on the guy on the left :)
Yup, wish you could add a little more space on top and less space at the bottom.

Registered on February 29, 2012, 15 Posts, 26 Comments