Mother's pride

[Shreyas Mantri]

Was lucky to spend some time with this family at the first light. Shot at Rietfontein waterhole in Etosha.

Canon 7D, 300mm II + 2.0x III, Manual, f/5.6, @ 1/320s, ISO 800.

Comments welcome!

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Shreyas - I like the soft morning, misty light. Nice eye contact from mom and the attitude shown by the cub on the lhs is great. It feels a little thin, not sure if that is a result of the morning light or the dof. I think adding just a couple of points to blacks and neutrals in selective color gives it a little more richness.

TFS,
Rachel

[Michael Rominger Jr]

Enjoy the family interaction and love the cute pose of the one cub you captured here. Also like how it appears mom is keeping you in check with her kids around. To me it appears the image may lack a slight bit of contrast possibly from the morning light as Rachel mentioned or maybe even a bit of flair from the angle? I beleive Rachel's suggestion would bring the image up a notch. Lovely image though!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Shreyas, nice to have a 'family' image for a change, rather than a solo subject. :S3: I also like the interaction of the cubs, portraying a feeling of 'not a care in the world', whilst Mum's pose has a bit more 'attitude'!

Michael could well be right about the angle of light, as the image does look thin (almost milky), even tacking into account shot very early in the morning. You might like to try adjuting the Levels first based on the Histogram, then applying Rachel's suggests, but I might go a couple of more points up ie 4 rather than 2. Just watch any adjustments don't effect the cub to the left too much. Not sure if the FP was on Mum or the LH cub, either way I think she could also do with a bit more sharpening, WDYT?

TFS
Steve

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Shreyas,

you have been lucky to see them in the open and a bit closer, lucky duck :bg3:
The suggestions you got already from the others.
Now I wonder what time have you been there last year?

Have a great day

Ciao
Anette

[Morkel Erasmus]

What a sight! So cute when small...and in this light...
I agree it needs a bit more punch (but still keeping with the early morning feel)...
Perhaps do a repost when the changes have been applied, Shreyas?

[Shreyas Mantri]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

I tried to leave the overall tone close to what I had seen in the field. As we can see, the cub on the left is covered by the mother's shadow (partially) and thus has richer tones; while the rising sun on the right made for the milkiness on the Lioness' side. Nevertheless, here's a repost. How does this work?

@ Annett, this was 3rd week of October 2012!

[Michael Rominger Jr]

Repost is a good improvement in my eyes Shreyas!