Family ties

[Peter Connan]

Some large predators work alone, and some in packs.

Cheetah tend to work in small family groups of 2-4 animals. The ties they have are very strong.

[Andrea B.]

This is lovely. I like that the right cheetah is in focus as he/she leans against the other cheetah, oof. It emphasizes the "bonding" look he is giving. What wonderful animals!

[John Geerts]

Impressive in color, contrast and emotion.  For my feeling however is the left cheetah a bit too much oof.

[Jakov Minić]

A beautiful image.
I would have preferred that the closest chetah is in focus.

[Peter Connan]

Thank you Gentlemen

[Gary]

Great shot. Touching.

[Frank Fremerey]

Great example for how we tend to project our own experience on perceived phenomena.

Just because something looks familiar does not even mean it is comparable even within our own species.

Photographically

Yes the sharp one is active and thus the emphasis seems perfectly justified. Alas. You never kiss alone and
thus the unsharp Cheetah might be underemphasised.

Difficult to tell. In the end a question of taste. For my taste it does not add up. I feel disturbed by the percentage
of unsharp actors and area in the composition.

[ColinM]

Peter, it works for me.
Yes the key is the RH cheetah and for me the LH cheetah just provides the context.

Also, this might work as a portrait format image, with the LH third cropped off. This would give you part of the left cheetahs face and the whole of the RH one dominating the scene.

[Jørgen Ramskov]

Works well for me, I like that the cheetahs fill the entire image.

[Erik Lund]

Lovely shot!

[Bjørn Rørslett]

You should work a little extra on the RAW to tame some blown highlights. Contrast is on the low side as well.

The left cat face might have been even more of focus and the impression still would come across, perhaps even stronger.

[Peter Connan]

Thank you Gentlemen.

Unfortunately, this scene really deserved a more competent photographer.

This was shot at 1/2000 of a second, and since it was a cloudy day, the resulting ISO was very high (2200). This is my "bird mode", and was set up on one of the user modes (manual, f5.6 and 1/2000 s/s with auto-ISO,some people call it "ISO priority"), and I think the high ISO and subsequent noise reduction efforts are responsible for the flatness and prematurely blown highlights.

Just a little bit more concentration required!

Colin, I like your idea and will try it.