Hunting Cheetah

[Wolfgang Steiner]

Hi,

this is a once in a lifetime shot.

I am very proud to present you guys what I was able to see and capture during my stay at mashatu game reserve in botswana early june this year.

What you see is a young male cheetah trying to catch a bat-eared fox. She was running behind the fox and when he turned around and changed his direction the cheetah also moved quickly and exactly at this moment I took this picture. I was really lucky, because the lens I used was the Nikkor AF-S VR 200-400mm/4.0 which is not quiet simple to use handheld at 400mm. Also the light was not good and at aperture 4.0 (wide open) the maximum shutter time at ISO 100 was just 1/640sec. That is real slow concerning to the fact that a cheetah is hunting with more then 100km/h!

To make a lang story short.... luckily I was able to get at least 1 perfect sharp picture, and now I know how difficult it is to make a real wildlife shot from a running cheetah.



Enjoy....


This picture is also listed at istockphoto, where you can buy it!!!

Regards

Wolfgang

http://www.wolfgangsteiner.com

[raptor84]

PRetty good capture given the conditions...

[k3nn3th03]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Steiner Hi, this is a once in a lifetime shot. I am very proud to present you guys what I was able to see and capture during my stay at mashatu game reserve in botswana early june this year. What you see is a young male cheetah trying to catch a bat-eared fox. She was running behind the fox and when he turned around and changed his direction the cheetah also moved quickly and exactly at this moment I took this picture. I was really lucky, because the lens I used was the Nikkor AF-S VR 200-400mm/4.0 which is not quiet simple to use handheld at 400mm. Also the light was not good and at aperture 4.0 (wide open) the maximum shutter time at ISO 100 was just 1/640sec. That is real slow concerning to the fact that a cheetah is hunting with more then 100km/h! To make a lang story short.... luckily I was able to get at least 1 perfect sharp picture, and now I know how difficult it is to make a real wildlife shot from a running cheetah. Enjoy.... This picture is also listed at istockphoto, where you can buy it!!! Regards Wolfgang http://www.wolfgangsteiner.com

anyway, wat the outcome ??

was the fox 'caught' ??

[mervin]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Steiner This picture is also listed at istockphoto, where you can buy it!!! Regards Wolfgang

hahahaha !!!!


good shot anyway mate !

[spidey89]

,seriously one heck of a great shot,i;m envious

[dawson]

impressive shot.

i like it and i don't think i have the chance to get this kind of shot.

[wilis128]

wolfgang, not a bad attempt..

to me personally a 1/640s is a lot of quality light, esp when u only used ISO100. anyway a 1/800s is already sufficient in most situation to freeze the cheetah.. at anything above 1/1000 it was very safe already.. in your case case, u shld have up the ISO to 400 to gain more speed.

just a reference to this page..
http://www.hoothollow.com/PORTFOLIO%...ticipants.html

if u check the exif of the photos.. u can see some of the full speed running cheetah chasing prey was done at 1/800 or 1/1250.

my 2 cents

[Wolfgang Steiner]

Originally Posted by wilis128 wolfgang, not a bad attempt.. to me personally a 1/640s is a lot of quality light, esp when u only used ISO100. anyway a 1/800s is already sufficient in most situation to freeze the cheetah.. at anything above 1/1000 it was very safe already.. in your case case, u shld have up the ISO to 400 to gain more speed. just a reference to this page.. http://www.hoothollow.com/PORTFOLIO%...ticipants.html if u check the exif of the photos.. u can see some of the full speed running cheetah chasing prey was done at 1/800 or 1/1250. my 2 cents

Its not possible to use a ISO rating like 400 because the grain will get unacceptable high. Nobody would ever be interested in buying an Image made with ISO 400.

And you are also wrong about the that exposure times less then 1/1000sec are save. Its not easy to avoid camera shaking specifically if you use a 400mm lens handheld and the cheetah is running fast, regardless to the shutter speed. But you should know that well if you have done shots like this by yourself already.

just my 2 cents

[wilis128]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Steiner Its not possible to use a ISO rating like 400 because the grain will get unacceptable high. Nobody would ever be interested in buying an Image made with ISO 400. And you are also wrong about the that exposure times less then 1/1000sec are save. Its not easy to avoid camera shaking specifically if you use a 400mm lens handheld and the cheetah is running fast, regardless to the shutter speed. But you should know that well if you have done shots like this by yourself already. just my 2 cents

Thks for the enlightenment… I never realise photos with ISO above 100 cannot sell.

You missed what I was trying to say.. When a picture is soft (not sharp), most of the time they're attributable to only 2 factors:

1. motion blur from the subject itself. Ie, the subject was too fast and therefore at the given shutter speed, the camera could not freeze the subject, and therefore the resulting photo was blur.

To quote you, " the light was not good and at aperture 4.0 (wide open) the maximum shutter time at ISO 100 was just 1/640sec. That is real slow concerning to the fact that a cheetah is hunting with more then 100km/h!" I was trying to tell you that the quality of light you had was very good already, and if you were able to up the ISO to 200 or 400, then you could've frozen the cheetah and probably came out with more keepers instead of just this one. Why? because other photogs have managed to freeze the cheetah at 1/800 and so could you.

If you have a chance to redo, would you have preferred a slightly grainier shots but many more keepers and sharper, or a noise-free like this shot but blur? Which one would a potential buyer have preferred?

i wanted to go on further to talk about panning the shots but than thats another topic for another day.

2. shake from your setup that causes blur. This could be the constraint of shooting condition (eg. Have to use bean bag or handholding) or photographer's fault for not mastering the art of long lens holding. From just this shot alone, I'm not able to tell precisely.

I share your excitement, but hope you don’t mind my comments. I have no experience using nikon 200-400, but i do comment from experience using other lenses.

[etegration]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Steiner Nobody would ever be interested in buying an Image made with ISO 400.

nonsense! why not if it's good?

[advrider]

huh? iso 400 already cannot ah??

[lhjz]

Originally Posted by etegration nonsense! why not if it's good?

a well exposed shot does not generate too much noise even at iso800 or even 1600
you can see lots of good examples in other nature forums ie www.naturescapes.net

[ericpooi]

First congrats for capturing the pic of a life-time, would be nicer if the cheetah is facing you instead of running away, well... one cannot control where the cheetah should run

As the saying goes, never stop learning till your last breathe.... Great to hear constructive comments that everyone here can learn from. I can understand your excitment to get such a tough shot, though I must say Wilis128 has a lot of good points to pick up.

Personally, as a start, I have to disagree that picture with ISO higher than 100 does not sell, that is a clear fallacy (sorry, no ill intentions). There are many pictures out there being sold for high prices where noise is purposely added into to create the effect... with current technology, ISO 200 to 400 is fully acceptable even without noise filters applied.

Wilis128 also mentioned a good point on the fact blurr picture is mainly attributable to two main factors. In fact there are more than that, however, one more important factor is ability of the camera to lock the focus. A good example of camera focusing power i applied with Cheetah running in various directions in split of seconds, one certainly has to consider the focusing speed / locking of the focus from your camera. For example, if you are usng D2X or D2H vs D80 or D200, certainly there is a higher chance of getting the perfect sharp picture from D2X / D2H instead of the latter 2.

Sure you are aware as a rule of thumb, preventing handshake, camera shake, whatever people like to call is 1/reciprocal of the lens, ie, if you are using 400mm, usually as a rule of thumb, unless one has a very shaky hands, 1/400 should be sufficient to reduce handshake when correct lens technique is applied. Personally, I have taken quite a lot of pictures handheld at 1/60 on subject that doesn't move much (birds) using my 500mm IS and the result is very sharp. Using 3-stop max saving from IS, it equates to 1/500 (exactly). Thus, at 1/640, any blurr are most likely due to subject motion more than handholding.... (again assuming correct technique are applied).

Indeed with Cheetah, I am also in the opinion that if you increase your speed to beyond 1/1000, you will have a better chance of having more than just 1 keeper. Thus, at the current lighting, you already achieve 1/640 using ISO 100, if you were to increase ISO to 200, your speed instantly increases to 1/1250, to ISO 400, it is a whopping 1/2500!!! Certainly much higher hit rates than at 1/640.... of course the rest is luck.... Wilis128 put it dead-on "would you have preferred a slightly grainier shots but many more keepers and sharper, or a noise-free like this shot but blur? Which one would a potential buyer have preferred?"

One more short final note on panning before I sign off, one can achieve a remarkable picture (and will certainly sell) if he/she can nail the cheetah running with shuttle say at 1/125 and yet achieve very acceptable sharpness with a motion blurr BG (even on 500mm lens), that, in my opinion is ultimate skill cum luck!!! Just my 2 cents worth.

Hope you have a better luck next time.

[Stratix]

not a bad picture you have, but personally, if you were to have this shot overexposed by 1/2 a stop, you'll never worry about noise. cos currently, it looks a little underexposed to me, and perhaps that's why you're worried about noise. =)

[Wolfgang Steiner]

Originally Posted by etegration nonsense! why not if it's good?

I really dont know if you guys ever sold some of your pictures or not, but many stock librarys dont accept pictures shot at ISO 200 or higher, even if they are perfectly exposed. And I know what I am talking, just last month I sold 23 of my images.

Cheers,

Wolfgang

[rncw]

i find this pic is just very normal and if the cheetah is hunting, then where's the prey?
all i read is your write up of the cheetah chasing some smaller animals, and if without your writeup, the picture is just a snapshot, with the cheetah smacked in the center, with dusts all around.

the only interesting fact i can see in your pic is that, it was captured in a wildlife park in africa.

it is difficult to capture animals in action in the vast area of a wildlife park (and the trip must also costs a bomb), that is why most good wildlife photographers spent months (if not years) tracking, observing and shooting their subjects.

bravo to your efforts though.

[Wolfgang Steiner]

Originally Posted by rncw i find this pic is just very normal and if the cheetah is hunting, then where's the prey? all i read is your write up of the cheetah chasing some smaller animals, and if without your writeup, the picture is just a snapshot, with the cheetah smacked in the center, with dusts all around. the only interesting fact i can see in your pic is that, it was captured in a wildlife park in africa. it is difficult to capture animals in action in the vast area of a wildlife park (and the trip must also costs a bomb), that is why most good wildlife photographers spent months (if not years) tracking, observing and shooting their subjects. bravo to your efforts though.

Sorry to say that but I find it a little bit inappropriate to call the place where I shoot this cheetah a "park". Specially in the context you used. May I remind you that the kruger national park is an open land with an area of 20.000 square km² (that is 29 times from the area of singapore!!!)

And if you think that this is the only interesting fact you should surf little bit around the world wide web and try to find similar images from cheetahs... then you will find out quickly what its worth. Running unsharp cheetahs you will find plenty... but not many like this one I'll promise

[chngpe01]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang Steiner Sorry to say that but I find it a little bit inappropriate to call the place where I shoot this cheetah a "park". Specially in the context you used. May I remind you that the kruger national park is an open land with an area of 20.000 square km² (that is 29 times from the area of singapore!!!)

Though I shared the same opinion as rncw (ie. the pic on its own without any explanation appears rather a plain snap shot). I did not want to comment about it when it was first posted, because I anticipated the type of response it will get from the TS.

As to the term "Park" - my view is simple; a Park is a Park whether it is 20,000 sq km or 2 sq m nothing can change the fact that it is called a Park. In this case it is called Kruger National Park unless it is renamed with the word "Park" taken out.

On the same note a country is a country whether it is 704,000 sq km or 704.0 km² (ie size of My Country Singapore) it is still a country.

Anyway Thank You for your contribution here and hope to see better images that will inspire and challenge our members to greater heights

[k3nshinx]

the photo is
the person is im sorry i had to say this, i mean. people are just giving constructive comments, seeing all your replies... it seems like you are very defensive of your picture and very proud of yourself as well.
tho im not any pro nor have i sold any of my photos. i am able to accept critics which i think you cant because you think very highly of yourself and all of us should only give "yes the photo is very superb" and nothing else. Hmm. im just saying what i feel. sorry to offend u. but yeah the picture is

here's one
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wild_images/996616116/
instead.

[lhjz]

i don't have to search hard becos i know i saw something very amazing taken by one of our nature photogs in Singapore

here is it if you haven't seen any sharp running cheetahs
http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB2/v...26a64f8510b380