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Here are a few images taken from a recent East African safari during migration time.

Eyeing up your prey.

06.27am
We had the privilege of watching this 2 year old male Cheetah hunt and take down a young Wildebeest this particular early cloudy morning.
The acceleration by this male was unbelievable, one minute simply strolling along, the next hitting the afterburners taking off and nailing his prey in what seemed a matter of seconds.
Here he is about 90 seconds before his success.

D3s 500VR 1/200s ISO3200@f/5.6 Nth Serengeti, Tanzania Oct 2010.




Zebra trio sunset silhouette

Watched on by a night roosting Secretary Bird.

D700 70-200VRII 1/2500s f/2.8 ISO1600@150mm Masai Mara Oct 2010





Mara river madness

During our 4 weeks in Kenya & Tanzania we were fortunate to witness 7 good crossings, fortunately most of them occurred on the less crowded Serengeti side.
One example of this was a breakaway group of wildes who decided (for reasons unbeknown only to them) it was best to cross at the most inaccessible sections, resulting in some comical leaping. Used a CP filter on the 500 to try and help combat the harsh lighting/reflections on the river.

D3s 500VR +CP filter 1/320s ISO400@f/5.6 Mara river Northern Serengeti, Tanzania Oct 2010.





Secretary bird

On the open grass plains of the Serengeti.

D3s 500VR 1/1600s ISO400@f/4 Nth Serengeti Tanzania Oct 2010




C & C most welcome

Cheers
Marc

Are you f'ing serious man ?
National geographic eat you heart out. Those first 2 are mind blowing. Superb, absolutely superb.

Go on...someone else post a big cat shot after this...i DARE ya. Lol

Wonderful images here.

I love Cheetah's, but for me #2 takes it out from this set.

These are awsome Marc. That 500VR is working well in your hands.
I really like the first and last.

#1 is an outstanding wildlife photo; #4 is almost as good; and #2 is just beautiful.

Great work!

Wow, you've produced some amazing shots here! absolutely amazing! To pick my fav is so hard as I like them all, I think I like #2 for the quality of the silhouette and the colors, but sheesh that cheetah is so amazing........

Are you f'ing serious man ?
National geographic eat you heart out. Those first 2 are mind blowing. Superb, absolutely superb.

I agree, these are spectacular photos that you should be exceptionally proud of.
I can only imagine the patience and waiting involved to get these shots.

Talk about being in the right place at the right time...

Certainly POTW material in here, and I may even be so bold as to propose a possible 2011 POTY lurking here as well...

Inspiring stuff! Thank you for posting and I look forward to more...

Dave

Awesome results Dave. what an experience to be there to witness nature at its best and then be able to capture it with such clarity. #1 is almost 3D and #2's colours blend wonderfully well. gotta get one of those secretary birds - comical and colourful.
look forward to more (and a 500mm price drop to mere mortal levels!
cheers R2

Love #1 in particular. The expression of anticipation, detail and smooth brokeh is fantastic.

Marc,
these are all awesome. I especially like the clarity and expression of the secretary bird, followed by the first 2. Well done and thanks for sharing

Aussie Dave wrote:Certainly POTW material in here, and I may even be so bold as to propose a possible 2011 POTY lurking here as well...

i think we should wait until Pt2 before we make that assertion. otherwise, lets just write POTW off until marc has finished posting shots from his trip. or at least rename it to MPOTW.

Great shots! I will hopefully be able to post some shots in about 10 days.
I'm off to South Africa (Entabini game park) on Saturday (5th Feb) for...5 days (don't ask).

Geoff

1 and 4 are outstanding!

Magnificent photography!

the foto fanatic wrote:#1 is an outstanding wildlife photo; #4 is almost as good; and #2 is just beautiful.

Great work!

These are possibly the best wild life images I have ever seen. Superb.

Alex

I dunno.
Yet again I seem to be out of step with everyone else here.
For me the standout in the group is #3. The way it captures that leap into the water, with others in the water & still more crowded around the cliffs at the top all signify the desperate imperative that drives this migration.
That's not to say that I think the others are rubbish. Far from it. They are technically perfect, but somehow fail to convey much of the lives of these animals.

Oh and BTW #2 seems to have been taken with the D700 & 150/f2.8 lens not D3s & 500VR as stated. I was thinking 500 @ f2.8 So I checked the EXIF.

#2 is ....i don't even have the words

#1 and #3 equally amazing!

i move to ban you from posting, so some of us have a chance at winning potw

Mr Darcy wrote:For me the standout in the group is #3. The way it captures that leap into the water, with others in the water & still more crowded around the cliffs at the top all signify the desperate imperative that drives this migration.

And isn't this a fundamental element of photography? To convey a story with the image?

Marc,

As good as #2 is, could you please, if you like, just crop a little more off the top. I think you want to lose about half of the space above the tree; use the dark area at the bottom as a guide, and provide only a similar amount of space above the tree, rather than the more generous offering that you currently have.

Mr Darcy wrote:I dunno.
Yet again I seem to be out of step with everyone else here.
For me the standout in the group is #3. The way it captures that leap into the water, with others in the water & still more crowded around the cliffs at the top all signify the desperate imperative that drives this migration.
That's not to say that I think the others are rubbish. Far from it. They are technically perfect, but somehow fail to convey much of the lives of these animals.

Oh and BTW #2 seems to have been taken with the D700 & 150/f2.8 lens not D3s & 500VR as stated. I was thinking 500 @ f2.8 So I checked the EXIF.

You make some good points, but I disagree.

The lack of contrast in #3 makes it tougher to discern the animals, and the bunch of cut-off legs don't convey what must have been happening on the shore. The wildebeest behind the leaping animal are a tad too static to portray the tension that must have been evident. I think that it is a reasonable image under the prevailing circumstances, but it doesn't have the impact of the others.

In terms of "conveying the lives of these animals", I don't know how you could go past the image of the cheetah. Eyes blazing, focussed on prey, rear legs uncoiling to propel the animal into the chase for food - this is a standout example of wildlife photography.

Appreciate the positive comments everyone, many thanks.

Mr Darcy wrote:Oh and BTW #2 seems to have been taken with the D700 & 150/f2.8 lens not D3s & 500VR as stated. I was thinking 500 @ f2.8 So I checked the EXIF.

You're correct.......a 500 f/2.8VR WOW!!!
The correct techs now read:

D700 70-200VRII 1/2500s f/2.8 ISO1600@150mm

Cheers
Marc

the foto fanatic wrote:In terms of "conveying the lives of these animals", I don't know how you could go past the image of the cheetah. Eyes blazing, focussed on prey, rear legs uncoiling to propel the animal into the chase for food - this is a standout example of wildlife photography.

x2. it wasn't the technical perfection that got me, it was a feeling of intensity in the eyes and body language that represents imminent explosiveness...seriously...these need to be sold.

Hi Marc,

some gorgeous images you are showing us here, so sharp and the colours are very vibrant, I had a look at your gallery on smugmug, these 4 certainly are the tip of the iceberg! The only thing I can really nit-pick at is that I would have liked to see a bit more of the wildes on the top bank.

In your post processing, for example on the secretary bird, do you apply a reasonable amount of sharpening? I know you would have started with a sharp image in-camera, just curious how much you need to do in post-processing.

If I had to pick favourites, the first two are my picks.

Looking forward to part 2. In the meantime, I'll explore your gallery.

cheers,

André

radar wrote:Hi Marc,
In your post processing, for example on the secretary bird, do you apply a reasonable amount of sharpening? I know you would have started with a sharp image in-camera, just curious how much you need to do in post-processing.

cheers,

André

Thanks for your comments Andre.
Shooting RAW (generally), requires sharpening to most images.
Working with USM in CS5, I usually start my (selective) sharpening at somewhere between 75-125%, with a radius of 1.

Cheers
Marc

Absolutely first rate images Marc. The subject separation in #1 and #4 and composition are classic wildlife images. Also love the compositional/story quality of both #2 and #3. They all scream out look at me but I must say #2 has that wow factor, particularly in the combination of tonal quality and composition...but hell I would have practically given a kidney just to have taken anyone of those images
Waiting both expectantly and enviously for part 2
cheers
marco

marc - for me #1 is the standout. Stunning capture

Note to myself...got to get myself to Africa sooner rather than later.

fozzie wrote:got to get myself to Africa sooner rather than later.

That would surely be something that you would need to do with a great deal of caution ....