Lion Skirmish

[Morkel Erasmus]

I'm in a sharing mood tonight. One of my favourite frames from my recent visit to Etosha (just shout if I should post photos from a different location for a change :w3:Whoa!:).
I noticed these two young males approaching from the other side of the waterhole a little before dawn. I rushed to the bunker and got inside. They were quite playful as they approached but as I got ready to photograph them, their energy subsided and they had a drink. Luckily, I was patient, and a few minutes later the one brother decided to irritate his sibling again for a few seconds.

Techs:
Nikon D3s
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f4.0 | 1/400 SS | ISO-2500
Full frame left to right, cropped from top and bottom :tinysmile_shy_t::tinysmile_shy_t:
In hindsight I could have stopped down more, but I would have lost a lot of light and didn't want to shoot this sequence at too high of an ISO setting
This was still about 5-10 minutes before actual sunrise.

[Hilary Hann]

What a wonderful encounter and I love the soft pink light of dawn. I love the bit of movement in the front paw with all the dirt thrown up.

[Gabriela Plesea]

I am green with jealousy:t3, Morkel!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great action captured! Love the dust and dirt bits flying!

Warmest regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Morkel - so much to like here, the great action, the movement in the paw, the flying dirt, the pink tones to the sky and the low pov. It all combines for IMHO one of your best images. Congrats!

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks a lot for your kind comments.
I noticed a halo along the BG bushes from sloppy luminosity adjustments, so here is a reprocessed file with a bit more colour depth as well...

[Don Railton]

I agree with everyone Morkel... This is a fantastic image..! Great action on beautiful background. Love that jaw locked onto the shoulder...

Can I assume your bunker is below ground level and is that why there is a blurry bottom edge to the image? Would you consider trimming a slither off the bottom to reduce this?? (maybe just up to the start of the white sand).. Just a thought.

DON

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, great interaction and I love the embracing paws :bg3: The flying dirt, flailing tails and muted colours all work together nicely. Obviously the bunker gives you a prime spot to capture the action and nothing beats the low POV IMHO. Because the image is so clean with no real distractions as such, so for me the mushy, hazy FG doesn't really add to the seen and without it, IMHO the image looks better, but I cannot see how you can avoid it, as cropping would leave it perhaps a little too tight at the foot, just my take. :w3

TFS
Steve

[edwardselfe]

This is a cool image - even the lack of visible eyes doesn't matter. I prefer the deeper colours in the rp.
Ed

[Brendon Cremer]

Great image Morkel, as mentioned above all works very well, you sure did have a great time there, how long were you there? Agree with steve re the fg but a crop isnt going to help as he mentioned just create a different problem. I suppose the answer is to get a little higher in the hide.

[Anette Mossbacher]

H Morkel, fantastic image. I agree as well with the FG, but what the heck it looks great :bg3:

Ciao
Anette

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel,
your usual IQ combined with nice interaction, well done

Great low POV, love this, not sure about the ele dung, maybe remove it........., or not !
Love the earth tones allover the image.
Surprisingly nobody asked about a tad more sharpening, so i would suggest a small amount of it ...... just for me , LOL.

Great stuff , Morkel.

TFS Andreas

Mushara ..........., if so, you have beeeeeeemn so lucky.

[Gabriela Plesea]

If I may suggest...just my take on this...please leave the ellie dung- it is part of the story, it tells a little about the environment, IMHO. Also, I would not crop at the bottom if this image were mine, the various colors and textures give depth and perspective. I love it just the way it is, Morkel!

Warmest regards,

[Girish Prahalad]

terrific action captured! superb POV & great details.

[Shreyas Mantri]

Sweet! I was gonna say some BG issues in the OP especially on the gap between the lions, but your RP takes care of it! And WOW...ISO @ 2500, but quite a result!
"Blessed" POV :5 Can only imagine the excitement of shooting from such a spot!

Thanks for sharing!

[vishaljadhav]

Wow such a great action image here, superb to see this .
Bet it was a good idea for me to come here today and see it otherwise iwould have missed a masterpiece .
Wont change a thing in here, this is award winning stuff Morkel , love it

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks a bunch for the very kind comments, folks!
Brendon - we were there for a week (6 nights).