African Lion

[Loukie Viljoen]

This was taken early morning outside Satara rest camp. in Kruger Park. Taken on Kodak Ektachrome ASA 64, Canon EOS1V, 100 - 400 mm Canon lens, scanned vie Nikon Coolscan 4000 ED

[David Steele]

Well done Loukie. An amazing male in absolute prime . . . caught in beautiful light and a great composition. To be very nitty, I might try working on that out-of-focus grass in front of his left rear paw. Difficult I know!

[Stephen Stephen]

Loukie congratulations on this image. Composition, colour and detailsa re very nice. A slight head turn towards you would have pushed this to another (higher) level. I'd still be excited to have this one in my collection.

[Vincent Grafhorst]

Perfect as is Loukie! The pose and the light are great. I don't mind the grass in front of the legs at all and a head turn would have made a nice image as well, but not necessarily a better one IMO.

[Rich Ikerd]

Wonderful image Loukie!! Great lighting and such a regal pose. My little distraction are the grasses just in front of his nose, but that's his habitat.

[Ed Cordes]

Super image in outstanding light! I like the chin up pose.

[Loukie Viljoen]

Thank you for the encouraging comments, the story was.. we were in Satara, woke op to a real miserable morning, all overcast, no light and I said to my wife Julie, there is no point in going out, there is no light, she replied "you are going to shoot nothing in the camp so lets go"so off we went as the gates opened, and 15 minutes later we came across this lion with his girl friend, they had a very exciting night, and he was reminiscing on the happenings, all the 10 other cars left, and we sat there looking at blue grey skies, when all of a sudden there was a slight opening in the cloud cover, the rising sun shone through there like a spotlight, and lit his face for a fraction, I managed one exposure then all turned grey, I lost some of the beautiful light through scanning the trannie, so the moral is "listen to your wife". LV

[Robert Amoruso]

You certainly captured him looking like a king. Nice work.

[Gus Cobos]

Great capture and composition. I like the feel of this one. The light and the colors are dead on...I like it the way it is...congrats...:cool: