Family of cheetahs

I photographed this family of cheetahs at sunrise in the Masai Mara National Park in Kenya. The trick was waiting for the moment (if it ever happened) when all the babies were basically on the same plane so they’d all be sharp. With a 500mm f/4 telephoto, depth of field is quite shallow. At the same time, of course, I needed the mother’s head to be turned toward the camera. One of the advantages of frontal low angled sunlight is the eyes of animals are illuminated beautifully. In this case, the orange eyes of the mother are especially powerful because of the light. I kept thinking what a burden this mother has in trying to keep her cubs safe and fed in a very dangerous environment. My settings were 1/640, f/6.3, and 200 ISO.