Rymus {dot} Net

Following the great day out at Fota Wildlife Park on Saturday, I’ve once again found myself with oodles of shots to work through. The backlog of shots seems to get longer with each passing week. Anyway…

Darren put us all to shame with his monster of a supermodel of a whale beating prime lens. What a beauty. Looks like Barry and himself got some great shots. Can’t wait to see what Treasa and Sandy produce. All I’ve put up so far are Cheetah shots, for a few good reasons!

Every time I’ve been in Fota in the past, the cheetah’s have been practically hiding in a slumbering state on a large mound of earth in the end of their pen. That mound of earth sat a good 30 or 40 feet away from the only spot the public could view the animals from. Seems that’s all changed. There are more pens that bring them closer to the public and indeed a new installation where they feed the cheetahs that actually makes them work for their food. After all that, and as if it wasn’t hard enough to photograph a cheetah running at God knows how many mph, you also have to contend with a chainlink fence and trying to get that as far out of focus as possible to make it invisible while keeping the cat in focus. Not easy. Managed it a few times through a mix of sheer luck and law of averages.

For now, only cheetah’s. In a week or so, maybe more. Lots of processing to be done. The full set will be on flickr as usual. For now, the cats will keep you company.