Cheetah Cubs
A pair of quite young cheetah cubs still with lots of baby fluff on their backs and quite wary of humans as we were the first humans they had encountered....
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A pair of quite young cheetah cubs still with lots of baby fluff on their backs and quite wary of humans as we were the first humans they had encountered.
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Aug, 2017Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in Kusini Safara Camp in Southern Serengeti in Tanzania. Our intention was to follow the Great Migration but somehow we were either too early or had just missed them. This meant that at this particular camp we were the only guests so had plenty of opportunity to explore what other wildlife may be about.Time
It is mid afternoon where the sunlight gives the landscape a golden hue, it is a sparse landscape dotted with kopjes. We had been told that there was a mother Cheetah with her two very small cubs and their age was estimated to be about 2 months old in the area. The colouring of the cubs helps them to blend in easily with their environment with their golden hues of their fur against the golden grasses of the landscape. Once we located where the mother was we spent a considerable amount of time parked in the vehicle hoping that the cubs would get a little more confident with our presence as these cubs had never before seen a vehicle or humans. I love that the cubs still have baby fluff along their shoulders.Lighting
There is something about the light in Africa that seems to be different from anywhere else in the world that I have been to. I love the golden landscape that is softly highlighted.Equipment
I took this using a Canon 5D Mark 111 with a 100-400mm lens hand holding the camera. I did not use a tripod or flash and there has been very minimal post production used on the photo.Inspiration
I loved how the cubs finally left their mother's side and set off to explore still staying within sight of mum. I liked the way one of the cubs is sitting on its hunches and the other is standing by the side both giving that backward glance as if both are looking directly at me and the camera. It was one of those moments that I felt that they were both really looking at me and wondered what they were thinking. I loved the colouring of the landscape and can see how easily it is for these beautiful animals to just disappear into the landscape.Editing
I do very minimal post processing and usually only involves some cropping and light adjustments.In my camera bag
I usually carry two camera bodies so that I don't have to continually change lenses. When I did this trip to Africa in 2017 I had a Canon 5D Mark 111 body with a Canon 100-400mm lens which I absolutely love and is the lens that I use the most. I would love to have a lens that had f2.8 but will have to wait a little longer for that! My other camera body was a Canon 60D with a 24-70mm lens that I mainly used for landscapes. I don't usually carry a tripod or any other equipment as I am usually limited to how much I can carry.Feedback
Africa offers so many photographic opportunities and most of these occur at sunrise and late afternoon when animals are active. The light at these times is just beautiful as well and all you have to do is wait and see what wildlife encounter you may experience. No two days are ever the same which makes it always the unknown as you just don't know what the morning or evening will bring.
