#7 : CHEETAH AND CUBS LYING ON ROCK, SERENGETI, 2007
The Importance of Clouds. Discuss.
I love photographing in East Africa. But I like my clouds specially imported from Northern Europe - somber, gloomy, melancholic. Now, truth be told, the clouds in this photo are pretty obviously African - a classic stormy East African build up of cloudy drama.
But imagine this photo with clear blue skies. Boring. It would not have made it off my contact sheet into the scanner. But with all this dramatic cloud dominating the negative space, this photo became a keeper.
Of course, the (tiresome) cynics amongst you will say, well, you could have just added in the clouds afterwards. Yep, you’re right, I could have. But really, how disappointing. And I always find - and you will hear me say this repeatedly - if you are patient enough, what nature eventually gives you is way better and more surprising than what you might have manufactured in Photoshop. So I stick with Nature.
Talking of that, the Frustration of Waiting: Discuss.
Trying to get good photos here in this particular part of the world - an area of the Serengeti - is pretty much as hard as it gets. The kopjes, the rocky outcrops here - are spectacular, but waiting for all the elements to align - the animal in the right place at the right time in the right light - is incredibly frustrating. Days, weeks go by without getting a good shot. Or any shot. The cats are sleeping, or the sky is too blue, or the animals have just eaten, or they’re too high on the rocks, etc etc etc. It feels like one (I) will never get a good photo again.
It’s a case of swinging hoops, all swinging out of sync, and you wait for that one statistically unlikely, very brief moment when, for a split second, the hoops all swing in unison. And when they finally do, it almost seems...easy. Until it feels impossible again.
The cheetahs - well, this was one of the last times I saw many cheetahs here in this area that used to be well-known for them. I have not successfully photographed a cheetah since 2008. There are now just an estimated 9,000-12,000 left on the entire African continent. There are fewer and fewer places that they can survive as man encroaches ever more rapidly on wildlife habitat, their ability to hunt compromised.
I hope that these three cubs survived and are currently out there somewhere, moving through the Serengeti grass, living their lives to the full.
Technical : as always, shot on medium format black and white film with a Pentax 67II, no telephoto or zoom.
By the way, viewing the photo at this size on the computer screen sucks. (But I could say that about all the photos). You need to see them as the large prints that they were intended to be. But in the absence of that, the books are a good interim compromise (how’s that for a sales pitch). So, if you wish to treat yourself to aforementioned good interim compromise....
The photo is published in “A Shadow Falls” (available on Amazon.com), and in “On This Earth, A Shadow Falls” (available for $112 on Amazon at this new link :
SIGNED copies of this 4th edition printing of the book are also available now at
First off, this is a great shot. I'd like to understand how you shot it. You mentioned you didn't use a telephoto or Zoom lens. What lens did you use for this shot? a normal lens? If so, how close were you to the cheetahs? I can't imagine getting so close that the wildlife wouldn't notice my presence.
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