Sometimes a visit to the zoo is like a game of I Spy, as in good luck finding anyone out and about. Not so a few days ago on a cool autumn morning, a lot of animals were out enjoying a bit of the morning sunshine, including this cheetah:
ISO 800 f/5.6 1/250 0ev 200mm
Usually when I am taking animal photos I try to get a shot with their eyes in focus. In this case, there was something I liked about the photos with its eyes closed. A bit relaxed and aloof at the same time. While I was shooting that morning I had set my ISO to 800 because I felt like with the sun going in and out, 800 would cover the changing conditions. I had my shutter speed at 250 because a lot of the animals were moving around, and that speed was enough to capture that motion. In this particular photo, that wasn’t really necessary. I have not done much post processing with this photo, the original is below, and you can see the biggest change is the cropping:
ISO 800 f/5.6 1/250 0ev 200mm
In this case I was mindful of the rule of thirds, and placed the cheetah’s closed eyes along one of those rule of thirds grid lines. I think keeping it simple in this case made for a good photo, but what do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Cheers!
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