We had such an amazing time on photo safari with Andy Biggs on the Mara plains in Kenya. I guess the highlight of my visit there was the "cheetah kill." Duncan, our guide, had us in a great position, and we waited for a female cheetah to make her move on a group of impalas. When the impalas got wind of her and started to move off, she had to make a decision. It was now or never as she targeted a baby impala. I've seen cheetahs on the hunt on TV but to actual live it was an experience beyond believe. These cats have speed and agility like nothing in this world. When she started her run, she was about 250 yards from our truck, and 100 yards from the baby impala. She came straight at us in hot pursuit of the impala. The baby impala ran right in front of our truck, with the cheetah closing in. Unfortunately, she lost energy to keep up with the impala. Cheetah 0, Impala 1
Wonderful shot and rarely accomplished outside of staged cheetah runs...kudos to your guide for setting you up in the perfect position to get this image and to you for getting the shot!
Eric
Our trip co-leader, Grant Atkinson, talked about what you mentioned on this "staged cheetah runs." I can't believe that photographers would do such a thing just to get the shot.
He also said that he has been leading photo safaris for 15 years, and had never experienced this before. We had been watching this cheetah for days, and she had not eaten. Some in our group, nicknamed her, "vegan cheetah." On this particular day, we waited over 2 hours, to see if she would go on the hunt . . . she did but lost.
Beautiful shot. We also spent some time stalking a cheetah (we were in Etosha) and when it happened, it was absolutely amazing how fast they move. I got a few shots off but my best was not nearly as nice as yours, very impressive.
That's a real great shot superb work to keep the subject in the frame and steady. One only gets a split second to get everything working right, shutter speed etc etc and you did really good.
Perhaps just a tad bit of back focus but with that quality of action who cares! I had a similar focus problem recurring on a Canon 500f4 and after micro focus adjustment it became really accurate.
Mark, that's a great shot! I'm glad to have someone who has experienced this type of cheetah action. Everyone in our safari vehicle was so excited . . . we had a nice sundowner reliving our experience that morning.
As stated in the previous post, we were 250 yards away since my husband had a ranger finder that clocked our distances. And, just like the whales, bears in Alaska, and the animals in Yellowstone, sometimes it can't be helped when the animal runs your way. In our case, we did not want to move any vehicle so as to NOT disturb the hunt and cause panic in the impala herd.
