I keep this shot on my main portfolio page for the Omaha Zoo. And at very first glance, that might be a questionable decision. There’s a fair number of things that are “wrong” with this image. The out of focus fencepost in the back is a little distracting. Not all three of the cheetahs are in focus. There are multiple limbs cut off in the composition. Those are all things that can make a photo go bad real fast.
So why do I keep it in a relatively featured position? All the things that are wrong with the image serve – I feel – as a way to highlight the big thing that’s right: the direct connection with the cat in the center.
When I took this, the whole pack had just been let loose into their habitat after the care staff had carefully hidden snacks in various places as a form of enrichment. They knew what was up and were charging out to go treat-hunting. Cheetahs are famously fast animals, so I had to put as much trust as I could in the eight frames per second the d700 could capture. When I scrolled back through them, there was something a little special about this one. Yeah, the composition wasn’t perfect. But the sunlight was poking through the trees just perfectly as to highlight the one cheetah that was not only in focus, but had paused for a fraction of second to stare at the photographer on the other side of the fence. The cheetah that had paused for a fraction of second to make a connection with not only me, but – through the very nature of photography – anyone else who happened to get a glimpse of that image in the future, yourself included.
Is this the best photo I’ve ever made? No. Absolutely not. But it would be far too easy to throw it out for everything that’s wrong with it, and ignore those little bits of magic that make it right.
The Zootographer 