Serval Portrait

Serval Portrait

 

I have been going to Africa for many years, but the Serval has always eluded me. So you can imagine how excited I was to see one on my very first day in the Mara a mere 5 minutes away from the airstrip! Just look at the cute face and the mega satellite dish ears!

Photographing in the mid-day glare certainly presented some challenges, so I did have to play around with the various settings in Lightroom. But no amount of pottering around in Lightroom can save certain images, so in the field I was careful to look for opportunities where there weren’t any harsh shadows falling on the Serval’s face and having the sun’s rays diffused by some high vegetation. Luckily this cat was quite cooperative, it stuck around for about 20 minutes, and was changing its location often.

Needless to say I was in love with the Maasai Mara literally as soon as I set foot there – and I look forward to returning very soon.

Techs: Canon 7D | Canon 300 2.8 IS II | f3.5 | 1/400s | ISO 100