Caption: Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) scans its surroundings from the elevation of a tree stump, Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.

Camera: Canon EOS 450D (Canon Rebel XSi 12.2MP); Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; Focal length: 135mm; Shutter speed: 1/125; Aperture: f/8; ISO: 400; Exposure compensation: +1⅓

Although the cheetah above obliged its human audience by climbing and “posing” atop the stump of a Mashatu tree, the lighting was extremely tricky. It was already late afternoon and we were looking into the bright light of the dipping sun, while the cheetah was in deep shadow cast by the huge tree.

While our eyes can magically adjust to the contrast produced by this sort of lighting, the background brightness will trick your exposure meter, leaving the subject far too dark.

To compensate for this, I overexposed by 1⅓ stops, using the camera’s exposure compensation button.

In the shot below, instead of using exposure compensation, I tried an external flash on the camera to throw additional light on the subject.

Here the shutter speed was 1/200 at an aperture of f7.1 — not much different from the first shot where I’d compensated by +1⅓. I had, however, increased the focal length from 135mm to 165mm, eliminating more of the bright background light that was influencing the meter in the first shot.

Both images were processed in RAW using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional then cropped and resized in Photoshop.

Caption: Lioness (Panthera leo), while lying on her back with head on the grass, keeps an eye on us from this unusual position, Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.

Camera: Canon EOS 50D; Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L; Focal length: 400mm; Shutter speed: 1/640; Aperture: f/8; ISO 800

We were watching two lionesses, more than likely sisters, affectionately nuzzling and licking each other (below), when the one rolled on her back briefly, all the while keeping her gaze on us. I find the image quite intriguing because of the direct eye contact from an unexpected angle.

Lions are regarded as the only truly sociable cats, with social licking and head rubbing being common among members of a lion pride. It is assumed this behavior plays a part in reinforcing social bonds, as does the greeting ceremony performed by lions.

According to Richard Despart Estes (The Behavior Guide to African Mammals), “pride members have to go through the greeting ceremony whenever they meet, as a proof of membership in the pride and of peaceful intentions”.

Caption: Two lionesses, members of the same pride, affectionately nuzzling and head-rubbing, Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.

Caption: Young male lion (Panthera leo) lying on his haunches in early morning light, Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.

Camera: Canon EOS 50D; Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM; Focal Length: 400mm; Shutter speed: 1/160; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 400.

The above photo was taken in October last year while staying at Rock Camp in Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana’s Tuli Block. The young lion, with his mane starting to show, was still in his mother’s company. Next week I hope to be back in Mashatu, so it’ll be interesting to see how much he’s grown (no guarantees of course that we will see him again).

The photo was taken fairly early in the morning with some backlight, giving the image a monochrome look. I’ve been preparing some of my wildlife images for printing as greeting cards, so decided to play on this and turn the image into black and white with a very faint sepia tinge – below.

And here’s another greeting card experiment, also in black and white but with the cheetah’s eyes in color:

It’s been some time since I added new photos to my Wildlife Pictures Online Gallery, but have now included a gallery of nineteen Jackal Pictures, featuring mainly black-backed jackals but also with a few side-striped jackal photos.

Caption: Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) takes a break from feeding on its kill, a female impala, to scan for any approaching scavengers, Mashatu Game Reserve, Tuli Block, Botswana.

Camera: Canon EOS 50D; Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; Focal length: 200mm; Shutter speed: 1/1250; Aperture: f/7.1; ISO: 400

The cheetah, once it had eaten its fill, moved away from the kill to rest in the shade of some nearby shrubs. After stretching and yawning, it began carefully grooming and cleaning itself, very like a domestic cat would do.

In the picture (right), it’s using it’s tongue to lick and clean its foreleg. Note the visible, unsheathed claws.

The cheetah’s claws — used mainly for providing traction during its short, blistering runs and not as weapons of attack — can only be partially retracted.

In contrast to this, other cats which either stalk or pounce on their prey, have claws that retract into sheaths when at rest, ensuring the claws remain sharp and ready for use.

We were interested that the first scavenger to arrive and start feeding on the remains of the kill was a tawny eagle (below), beating the resident jackals and hyenas to this free meal.

Caption: Leopard cub (Panthera pardus) relaxing on a termite mound in fading light, Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.

Camera: Canon EOS 50D; Lens: Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM; Focal Length: 400mm; Shutter speed: 1/40; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 800; Lens.

On a recent visit to Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana’s Tuli Block, we were fortunate to see an excellent variety of wildlife. Even though it was still very dry with the vegetation brown and parched, the animals looked in pretty good shape.

Some of the highlights incuded sightings of a cheetah mother with her sub-adult cub, three leopard cubs, lions, hyenas, numerous jackals, vultures squabbling over a lion kill, and even a porcupine at dusk.

The above photo is of one of the leopard cubs, a female, that we found alone with the remains of a kill that she fed on before posing for us on a termite mound. We later saw the other two cubs well camouflaged in a leafy tree, but never saw the mother, although she must have been nearby.

Caption: Male lion (Panthera leo) licking his lips, digital color image converted to black and white, Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.

Camera: Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi); Lens: Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM; Focal Length: 300mm; Shutter speed: 1/1000; Aperture: f/5.6; ISO: 400.

In the early 90s I worked as a news photographer on The Witness, a South African daily newspaper. We used 35mm film cameras, loaded mostly with black and white film.

The film of choice amongst Press photographers of the time, certainly in South Africa, was Kodak’s Tri-X, a 400 ASA black and white film ideal for Press work because of its high speed — good for action, low light, and the type of unexpected situations that news photographers have to deal with.

If circumstances demanded, for example in low light with no flash allowed, we could “push” Tri-X to 800 or even 1600 ASA. In the latter case, we were under-exposing by two stops and would compensate for this by over-developing. (Note that ASA, a measure of film speed or sensitivity, has been replaced by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization’s method of measuring sensitivity).

This push-processing increased contrast and grain, but the results were usually acceptable for printing on newsprint and produced those gritty, grainy shots one associates with hard news pictures from the latter half of last century (wow, that sounds sooo long ago!).

You’re probably wondering where this is going … okay, it’s just some background to explain why I still love black and white images, and why I’ve been playing with DxO FilmPack 3 from DxO Labs. This software, either standalone or as PhotoShop plugin, lets you “rediscover the magic of film” by applying vintage film effects to digital images.

So you can make your digital photo look like it was taken with Kodachrome or Fuji Velvia, or a bunch of other positive and negative color films, plus a range of venerable black and white films.

The digital image above (taken at ISO 400) was converted to Kodak Tri-X 400 black and white using DxO Film Pack. Ideally you want to print the converted images with a good quality printer to fully appreciate the effect. The software also allows you to apply various filters. The image below has an orange filter added. A bit too dark, but it gives an idea of the possibilities.

Lion picture converted from digital to Tri-X black and white plus orange filter using DxO Film Pack 3