When it comes to wildlife photography it is vitally important to "freeze" the action. While we sat with this cheetah we watched as he moved from tree to tree to find himself a good vantage point. Most of the trees he had climbed were fallen trees but this particular one was quite high. I knew immediately that he was going to have to come down at some stage, so I started to change settings to ensure that I could freeze the moment.

I boosted my ISO to 500 and opened the aperture up to f2.8 to ensure that I had a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the cheetah as he descended the tree. I then waited for my moment. My Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 were poised and waiting and as he started his descent I let off a rapid fire of images to capture all the action as he came down.

Expose your balance

Richard de Gouveia

More Wildlife Photography Tips