2013: Your favorite image of the year?

[Pathfinder]

Like lots of us here, I shot thousands of images in 2013, of landscapes, vehicles, people and wildlife. Choosing a single image only is quite difficult, but there is really only one set of images that is the most memorable for me for 2013.

The most single exciting shot of them all, for me, was this shot of two cheetahs from about 3 feet. I never dreamed of sitting within three feet of two wild cheetahs, with them being calm, and quietly surveying the landscape. They sat on top of our vehicle for over 15 minutes. I still get a wow, just thinking about it.

Our guide had parked the Land Cruiser along the dirt road in the Masai Maara, and in less than 15 minutes two cheetahs calmly walked up behind the Cruiser, and jumped up on the rear mounted spare tire, and onto the roof. They were so calm, and I was shaking like a leaf, and I was also really annoyed because I could not photograph them, because they were way, way too close with my telephoto lens. I had to pause, take a deep breath, remove my long lens, and install my 24-105 to focus close enough, and pray that they would still be on our vehicle by the time I got my camera ready. The cheetahs were very patient with me, and I was rewarded with this image, among many others.

I have shots of my wife, who was sitting on the seat, directly below the two cats, with their tales waving 6 inches in front of my wife's nose through the roof opening.

Here is a pull back shot of the two cats, shot directly into the morning African sun. I should have remembered to add fill flash, but I did not think of it, until after the moment had passed.

http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Travel/Kenya-2013/i-p577dvf/0/XL/two_cheetahs-9413-XL.jpg

 

[nwoods]

Pathfinder, those are both great images heightened indeed by your story telling. Not sure I'd dare pop off a flash that close to one those kitty's though!

 

[Pathfinder]

Thank you for the nice comments.

I had the same the concerns about flash, at 3 feet. But I was so excited I didn't even think about flash until later, but the backlighting with the sun behind the cats was challenging to deal with. I didn't think about HDR either at the time.

But I have used fill flash with lions at about 6-8 feet without any apparent effect on the affect of lions relaxing on rocks just beside our vehicle.

I did think about it for a moment for the first shot. After that I shot about a dozen frames, and the lioness never even looked my way.

This image - http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Trave...XL/lion portrait on the rock _MG_4539-XL.jpg - does show recorded in its exif data that flash was used, and you can see the light reflex in the eyes. I wanted to minimize the significance of the shadows of the tree branches across her face. Mottled shade can be ugly, but I had no way to move to a different position.

I think that flash is so dim, compared to sunlight, and so brief, that most animals hardly register it. Certainly, this lioness was not disturbed by it at all.

 

[Sebas]

But if you had to pick your favorite, which would it be?

Hi, it's a little complicated, but i think would be the first.-

 

[Butch1979]

Pathfinder:

Thanks for telling the story behind the image, awesome shot.

 

[seeNik48]

Black Rock Playa 10-2013
I LOVE the desert.

 

[FlyJester]

It is not my greatest pic in terms of composition, colors, exposure and everything else, I even just used the crappy camera on my phone and lucked out on hitting the shutter button as I drove past. It did however evoke great emotion to see that flag flying high above my small hometown on the anniversary of September 11th. Nothing fancy, just small town America at it's finest, and that is why it is my favorite.

 

[nevadajh]

This was my favorite for 2013. I never even planned on using this pic. I had several others from this outing that I thought would be better, but after looking at this one over and over again I found myself laughing at this mustangs expression. I find joy in all of my photos but this one was just really funny!