March 14, 2011
Cheetah in Kruger National Park, South Africa

On our thirteenth full day in Kruger National Park, South Africa, we explored the area around the Lower Sabie Rest Camp. The most unusual sighting of the day was a python crossing the road. It's head, and who knows how much of its body, was already across the road and not visible in the tall grass, but at least 7 ft (2m) of its body was visible on the road, and it was about 5-6 in (12-15cm) in diameter — a most impressive specimen! My favorite image of the day is of a cheetah that was extremely cooperative. I had seen cheetah before in Kruger National Park, but they were fleeting glimpses with no opportunity to photograph them. The encounter today was fantastic, not just because the subject was cooperative, but because the cloud layer created some wonderful diffuse light in the late afternoon. We came upon the cheetah in the image above at a cheetah jam — several cars stopped on the road jockeying for position to watch and photograph the cheetah that was sitting on the shoulder of the road! We were able to get some decent images before the cheetah moved off into the grass and scattered brush. Eventually all of the other vehicles left after the cheetah was out of sight, but we waited. It was a good thing we did because the cheetah came back out to the road and we had it all to ourselves. We were able to get into a nice position to get some fantastic head shots (above)! After a while, the cheetah went back into the brush, and after we lost sight of it and had waited for a while, we were about to leave when it came back out to the road. This time, we had it to ourselves for a while before another vehicle came. After the cheetah went back into the brush, we finally left, quite satisfied that we had gotten some great images.

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