Facing a lioness

[Rudi van den Heever]

We were keeping an eye on her where she was sleeping under a small camelthorn tree about 10 meters from the road, when she suddenly got up yawning...

The road is sunken on long stretches north of Nossob camp in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and she was walking straight towards me... staring at me with those hazel eyes... I had to take the necessary precautions when she was less than 2 meters away from me, although she was as calm as a hindu cow... She was close... very close... I had to stop taking photos, pull the camera back into the vehicle (it couldn't focus anyway), close the window and start breathing...

She stepped into the road right next to my window and slowly walked north sniffing the air every now and then. From the look of her swollen teats she must have had very young cubs that still had to be introduced to the pride.

Almost exactly 15 minutes later she single-handedly took down a blue wildebeest without much ado. Unfortunately it was some 250 meters from the road and I could not get any worthwhile images from the kill. She ate for about half an hour, whereafter she once again disappeared over the horizon, seemingly on her way to feed her cubs...

Equipment: Canon 50D and 100-400mm L lens at 200mm
Settings: 1/5000 at F5 an ISO 400

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rudi,
very good IQ,perfect sharpening on lioness.colors look good ,too.If it was mine i would open up the mid tones by 1/3 stop.Is it FF ?If not i would include ,if you have,the paw of the right front leg.Even if the paw is barely visible,now it is looking like you cut of parts of the leg.Beside the stuff i said i like the processing very much.

Cheers Andreas

[Ken Watkins]

Rudi,

This is a beauty, I knew those sunken roads must be useful for something:bg3:

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rudi, very nice indeed, love the colour and detail, the position in frame works extremely well and as Andreas mentioned, nicely processed too. Had a quick look to see if flipping the image may be an alternative option too, as the lioness is then coming in from the RHS, but the eyes are then looking to the right too much, so as is, the eyes look to camera nicely. :S3: If Andreas had not mentioned it, I might not have looked out for the paw, but if you have it, then perhaps some additional image at the foot would be nice, but no deal breaker. I assume this is following your agenda for keeping the SS high.

TFS
Steve

BTW Did you get my PM?

[Rudi van den Heever]

Basically full frame Andreas... no space below and a bit on top...:tinysmile_shy_t:

Could have used a lower ISO Steve, as I did not need much shutter speed here... she was very lazy...

[EzhilSuresh]

Rudi, very nice image and the brief story behind it.

[Andrew Merwin]

I agree with Steve re. the paw. I noticed it only because Andreas mentioned it. I am riveted by the eyes & pose. Wonderful IQ & a great story.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Great IQ and gaze here! Ditto the paw...
those Nossob roads can work well if you have a situation like this! I wonder if she ever returned to the kill or just fed the one time, leaving it to scavengers afterwards?
:cheers:

[Mark Wiseman]

Hi Rudi,
I like the detail, POV and the comp. Ditto the paw and I like your techs. I will follow your example next time I am in manual mode.
Wonderful image, TFS and best wishes,
Mark.

[Marina Scarr]

She may been lazy here but still looked mighty powerful. Great processing here as she looks so real life

[Rudi van den Heever]

Thank for the feedback everyone!

[Jay Gould]

Mate, she looks so real I was wondering if you gave her a petting? :w3 :Whoa!:

[Rudi van den Heever]

:bg3: Thanks Jay!

I think that is the result all photographers attempt to achieve! If we can only achieve it with every image...:e3

[Robert Amoruso]

Rudi,

Well done - as mentioned, better if you had more room in front. I see magenta color cast in the blue sky. I would also run some noise reduction on the blue as well.

I love the grass/brush she is in. That combined with the blue sky make for an appealing environment to create this image.

[Rachel Hollander]

Rudi - great comp and IQ. I also would probably not have noticed the paw if it had not already been mentioned. The low pov is excellent here.

TFS,
Rachel

[Rudi van den Heever]

Thanks Robert and Rachel!!!

[Shreyas Mantri]

Great pose and quite an interesting setting. Very well captured!

[Rudi van den Heever]

Thanks Shreyas!