
- GABRIELA PLESEA
- GABRIELA PLESEA
- NIKON D5 Ver.1.10
Hello Friends,
This frame was quite difficult to process and I am not too happy with the outcome for various reasons, nevertheless it does fit in with this month's Theme:w3 I must say despite the amount of time we spent following and observing this young cheetah cub and his mom, my companion and I ended up with very few images from the scene. The main problem was light, still very harsh at H18:30 pm. There were other characters present, a springbok in the distance and two jackals close-by. The latter popped up randomly and in the most unexpected places, like the top of the dune between grasses or behind a tree. Here is an extract from my diary that will tell you a bit more about the scene:
"...Rooiputs, February 2018. We had a very hot day so quite happy to be on our way back to the camp. Don't know what made us glance up the nearby dune, I guess it was the pebbles running down as the cheetahs moved. The sun was heavy and streamed down lingering over the cub's face. He was not too far from mom but kept falling behind and turned to look around from time to time, his face showing discomfort because of the steep path and perhaps exhaustion. Or maybe hunger. Every now and then he stepped into the blue shade of a bush to cool a little and regain strength, to our dismay mom kept going and not looking back. My heart shrank a little when I saw the poor condition he was in and I kept wondering about the secret colour of his fate. Only minutes later, from the perfect line of the dune above two jackals followed, bodies close to the ground, faces intent. They seemed ready to pounce on the cub as soon as the mother decided to chase the unaware springbok grazing nearby... I was tempted to grab another camera with a smaller lens but something told me I had to stick with the cub, he had this expression of suffering on its face and I wished to capture it despite the way it made me feel. My heart was pounding as I saw the jackals getting closer and I was wondering what mom was thinking, following the springbok and ignoring danger...It seemed like forever but eventually she turned around and saw them. We were relieved. I could see her dilemma and almost feel the weight of her hesitation for a moment, but when a faint call resembling a little chirp came from the cub she reached out to him..."
Nikon D5
Nikon 500mm F4
ISO 640
F5.6
1/2500s
Thank you so much for taking the time to view and for your patience to read the intro. I would appreciate any comments or suggestions, be it of a technical nature or otherwise.
Kind regards,
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