So just one week ago I won my first ribbon, a blue no less. Two weeks ago, my thoughts about winning a ribbon and/or scoring a 7+ were "maybe someyear". Now, I've won two challenges and scored a 7.98...?!? Honestly, I'm trying to figure out how to put into words what I feel about this.
I'm on vacation from Hawaii now, visiting family and it's like I'm in some parallel world where I actually win ribbons on DPC. Seriously, this doesn't feel real. Going into this challenge, I would've been shocked to have received a 6.9...which would've been my highest score ever.
I knew something funny was going on when I had 50 votes or so, a 7.5ish score and it wasn't going down like it "always does". Coming into Sunday, I was actually sitting at 8.01 for a while! I can't believe that. I honestly thought I would never score this high.
Okay, so about the image. A lot of people commented if this was real or not...or even taken in a zoo. Well, this is in fact REAL and it was taken at the Honolulu Zoo.
The zoo itself is, IMO, just average. However, this area of the zoo is nice because you can get some shots without fences/cages in your way. In this particular instance, there is a clear plastic wall directly beneath my lens that I'm just tall enough to shoot over. The ridge in the background is the popular landmark Diamond Head.
Up until arriving at the cheetah exhibit, my best picture was of a duck, so I'd like to thank this guy for showing up. Walking toward the exhibit, some people were complaining that they couldn't see any cheetahs. Almost right when I got there, this one walked up from behind the rock and struck a pose for about 10 seconds and ran off. I like to think he arrived just so I would win this challenge. :)
As for processing, the main thing I did was tonemap the RAW file in Photomatix. This helped balance out the light and bring out some detail in the cheetah. In Photoshop, I used a layer mask on a duplicate layer in multiply mode to selectively reduce the exposure around the cat, which I think helped make him stand out. Otherwise, the rest of the editing wasn't particularly anything special.
Here is the original:
Thank you for all of the votes and wonderful comments!
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 87 Avg (all users): 7.9817 Avg (commenters): 9.0952 Avg (participants): 7.6000 Avg (non-participants): 8.1261 Views since voting: 13619 Views during voting: 466 Votes: 164 Comments: 69 Favorites: 25 (view)
Incredible shot, but one thing I noticed is that you had no votes of 1, 2 or 3. There is usually some troll that dings a great picture, but that didn't happen here. That's an achievement in itself and testifies to how great a shot this is.
There's no need to be modest...This is the best photo seen on DPC for quite some time, as is illustrated by the score. 37 10s is something really special in this day and age on DPC. Very well done to you. (It'd have been 38 if I got round to voting lol)
The clarity of tones, the sharpness and details in this shot are truly exceptional.
I can't wait to see what you'll get blue with next week ;-)
This is just about as good a cat picture as I've ever seen on DPC. The surround is so astonishing I actually wondered if this was a stuffed animal in a diorama... Simply an excellent capture and a fine, almost surrealistic, job of post processing. Congrats on a well-deserved blue and a world-class high score.
I'm glad to see this was real. Though I doubted I gave you an 8. I know cheetah's do OK with people, but they are fast and you can't see any barrier in this shot. Was this a hill in the middle of a fenced off area? Congratulations on a well done shot and a well deserved ribbon! I can't believe how perfectly everything worked. The perfection was the main reason for my doubt.
Thanks for posting the extra info and the original. You did an amazing job with the editing! This is such a striking photo. Congrats on winning the blue!
OK, you can retire now. :-) I'm betting the zoo would love to have a copy of this - it would make an awesome poster. And I'm still trying to figure out how they keep the cheetah in the zoo... looks like he could just head for the hills any time he wanted to. This says alot for both your photograph and the way the zoo has the exhibit set up. 'Grats all around!
Super excellent photo and nice twist on the spelling of my city of birth. It's been years and years since I've been to the Zoo in Honolulu and it looks like it's changed a little - I don't recall views like this, but oh well... Your photo should be a serious ribbon contender.
Cute title. Is this real or a stuffed cheetah with a painted background? I wish I knew before voting. If it's live it's excellent setup and lighting. If a museum someone else did a great job. I'll give you the benefit of a doubt. In any case it's nicely done.
Holy cow - really does look like a poster! Is the background real or have they set it up to look that way? Or is this not a zoo at all? Excellent light, comp, color, focus, etc.
Back for bump and comment. Excellent job capturing the animal in what appears to be a mostly natural area. Clarity on the cat is excellent. I think I may see this on the front page.
imho this is by far the best shot in the challenge. I suspect a ribbon coming your way.
Nicely done. I have been to Honolulu and several times and always thought about going to the zoo and never did, now I am wishing I had.
Well done.
Honolulu Zoo
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
