Young Kalahari Lion

[Morkel Erasmus]

Markus' Cheetah shot under a tree in the Kgalagadi made me think of this one taken in the same park in October 2010.

We drove by 2 young males lying RIGHT on the edge of the road in the shade of a camelthorn acacia tree. I exposed correctly for the lion, not for the shaded light, and was able to get some decent images in the middle of the day in the filtered light of the shade of the tree. :t3

I rolled up my window quickly after this - as he was staring into my soul and he was quite close...:2eyes2: (focus distance 4.5m)

Techs:
Canon 7D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 105mm
f8.0 @ 1/200 SS @ ISO-400
EV +0.3
Full frame, perhaps cropped slightly for rotation (I forget)

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, love the soulful expression. Personally I might do some gardening or toning down of the OOF object on the LH edge, keeps catching my eye. No issue about cutting through the body.

TFS
Steve

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

This is nice just a pity about the clipping of the paw but no big deal.
I do hope you did not roll your window up, surely you have electric.:S3:
When I was in Addo, I had a similar experience but after quicky shutting the window the Lion came up and out his nose on the glass, was I glad not to be in an open vehicle:w3

[Riaan Marais]

Hi Morkel,

Don't change anything, it's about his eyes, everything else is just completing the image. The natural light in the eyes is nice.

Riaan

[Hilary Hann]

Lovely expression and beautifully processed. Just wondered if you did any selective colour work on the face versus the body of the lion as there is quite a difference in the tone and the more I look at it the more I notice it.

[Steve Canuel]

Never seen one in the wild but this look appears to be more of a "wonder how he would taste?" rather than a "wonder what he's doing?" Like the view of the paws.

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful shot with fantastic eye contact. The soft light is great for a shot like this.

Markus

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks folks. I too am more taken with the eye contact here than anything else.


Lovely expression and beautifully processed. Just wondered if you did any selective colour work on the face versus the body of the lion as there is quite a difference in the tone and the more I look at it the more I notice it.

Not really! I thought it might have been flash, but EXIF shows I did not fire that thing :S3: