Through the Grass

[Rachel Hollander]

Taken early morning in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve. The lions had made a kill but the hyenas stole it in the morning. Here the lions warmed up in gorgeous first light and seemed to be weighing their options. I think when you're shooting through a fair amount of grass the grasses across the face add to the image rather than distract. If it was just one or two blades I find them more distracting.

Canon 7D2
300 II
1/1250
f5.6
ISO 1600
Monopod from safari vehicle, curves, sharpened in PSCC.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[haseeb badar]

Hi Rachel -- What i liked about this image is the early morning light and the lion in the BKG . Nice details from the 7D2 @ 1600 iso , though some noise is still evident in the BKG. I would have liked more space at the bottom of the frame and that nose of another lion ( if i am not wrong ) in the rhs corner is a bit distracting . Animals in there natural settings dont bother me and the scene reflects the places these cats prefer to rest. But still not a very appealing image IMO. Lets see what others have to say.

TFS !

[Marc Mol]

Hi Rachel -- What i liked about this image is the early morning light and the lion in the BKG . Nice details from the 7D2 @ 1600 iso , though some noise is still evident in the BKG. I would have liked more space at the bottom of the frame and that nose of another lion ( if i am not wrong ) in the rhs corner is a bit distracting . Animals in there natural settings dont bother me and the scene reflects the places these cats prefer to rest. But still not a very appealing image IMO. Lets see what others have to say.

TFS !

Haseeb has touched on pretty much what I wanted to say here, lovely golden light all the same Rachel, but feel there's just too much grass across the frame.

TFS

[Gabriela Plesea]

Dearest Rachel,

I can only agree with you, the golden light was stunning that morning. Amazing how much detail it reveals and how it influences the mood/feel of a particular image!

Been looking at this for some time and at some stage I "borrowed it" and took it into PS to play around with composition etc. I know you (and others too) dislike square crops but I tried it and IMO it worked a little better. This, because there is too little space at the bottom and I wanted to balance things a little.

But I am left with one issue: I feel the frame is too busy. Would have liked either the grass, or the lion in the BG - but not both.

I do realise you did not have much of a choice. And the light was too good to be true... I remember one instance in 2011 when I sat for five hours at a lion sighting, waiting for any member of the pride to get up. The light was great and there was a slight breeze from time to time... I only shot when the breeze was strong enough to move a blade of grass that was crossing one lioness's face:bg3: The other fellows were lying down flat, their faces buried in the grass. But I wasn't quick enough though...When I got back to the camp and downloaded I had over a hundred images with the grass over the subject's eye and only one worth processing:)

Nature is untidy. But beautiful. As photographers we capture it in any way we can, we experiment. You inspire me tremendously this month, I think you were bold to experiment in so many ways and learnt a lot in the process. Thank you so much for sharing with us - we are learning with you:5

Warmest regards,

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Rachel, nice light and gaze but the grass is a bit overwhelming & the one that touches the eye isn't making it for me. A bit more room below would have helped here. Sorry.

[John Mack]

Sweet light on this lion. My first though was a vertical would be nice i don't know if you had time. I see what you are saying about the grass. Detail looks good.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone for the honest comments. I still like the image and posted it knowing the comments would likely be negative. I just want to get people thinking about experimenting and what to do when the clean portrait that so many favor isn't available.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[haseeb badar]

Well said Rachel !

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, I quite like the framing, although the heavily saturated look I think is perhaps a matter of taste, but it works here. I can see where you are going and a lot of folk don't like grass over the face, but it's reality, however the one over the main eye is problematic I think. DoF looks a bit short and you can start to see the noise in the BKG, one of the shortfalls of the 7D 1&2, not sure if the 3 will be better. For me, having the OOF lioness in the BKG so close to the ear, the muzzle does catch my eye too and O would crop a fraction off the RHS to eliminate the object coming into frame. When you look at the image, the Blacks and Contrast for me are also chocking the detail, there is a lot more detail that comes through once this is under control or the input amounts refined in respective sliders, perhaps amplified by the noise of the 7D2? Slightly dropping the exposure to the BKG also provides better prominence to the main subject. You don't say if this is FF or cropped, but the chin is just a bit too close to the frame, more room would have been better, that's the problem of fixed lens, bolting on your 100-400 would have given better flexibility here in terms of framing.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve. I didn't apply any NR to the bg so can do so. The OP is ff. I always indicate if I cropped. RP looks good.