Playful Speedsters

Congratulations! This is the Image of the Week selection for the Wildlife Gallery, week ending 17th August, 2012!Here's another from the amazing sighting we had in February of 3 cheetah siblings at play. The one started chasing the other (the 3rd one joined later).

I was shooting nice shots of them walking along the green riverbed when they were still quite far away - hence I had the converter on and was shooting wide open (overcast varying light).

When it all happened, it was over in a matter of seconds and I didn't have time to stop down for fear of missing the action.

This is one of the shots that worked out...the DOF was too shallow for many of the other shots, and they came too close so I ended up chopping off all kinds of limbs. So we learn with every opportunity missed!

Have you missed some shots of exciting moments because you weren't prepared?

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
1.4x teleconverter
f5.6 @ 1/800 SS @ ISO-1400
Almost full frame, had to rotate/crop for levelling and ended up being a tad tight on top.

I miss Africa! Stunning shot. The expression of the Cheetah on the right is funny. Great soft light and wonderful colors.
The dust below them is great.

Markus

Terrific action shot!

Superb image Morkel! This really showcases the Cheetah agility and the wonderful interaction between these two. Gorgeous detail and light. Beautifully done, love it!

Very sweet! Love all the dust flying and tails flying, you can tell just how hard they are at the chase. It does move quite fast with these youngsters.
I missed a terrific cub/male lion interaction in TZ last year because my CF card filled just at the moment of the greeting. Needless to say I pay a lot more attention to the counter now.

Great capture of this playful pair Morkel -- a fine dust-up!

Beautiful interaction.
I prefer to get caught with too much lens than not enough.

thank you so much for the kind feedback, guys

Stop moaning, this is superb. I always have the wrong lens on