Mum's the World !

[haseeb badar]

Hello everyone.

Great to see that Gabriela is back again. Seems life is back in our Forum. And so I too won't be backing off from posting .

Here is an image from my Botswana trip back in 2018. Two lionesses had brought down a wildebeest and they had these tiny cubs for company. The cubs, first tried their hands on the kill and then after a while returned to their mothers for a suckle. Such intimate moments in the wild are always a pleasure to witness. The irony of sorts was on display from the lionesses, as on one side they were ruthless predators and on the other, calm and caring mothers.

DPP 4.12, PSCC 2020, WB, levels, curves, sharpening.

Canon 1DX MK II, Canon 200-400 f4 @560 mm, Bean Bag.

ss 1/2500, f/5.6, iso 1000.

Looking forward for your comments and suggestions, be it of any nature.

Haseeb.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Haseeb:wave:

Such kind words, awwwww, thank you, I missed you guys:tinysmile_shy_t:

The forum has indeed been a bit quiet but folks were unable to travel, how frustrating. Things are improving though, here in SA we can go to the game reserves and enjoy the wildlife again:w3

Haseeb, these are two little cuties, thank you for sharing! They look so content. For me it is always a great sighting when lion cubs are present.

POV is great here. Just curious, did you get any images where you included mom's face as well? Or cropped in this manner to got closer, and emphasise the cubs?

Overall colours look good and detail is nice on the little one. Don't know if I could suggest anything. Nice choice of DoF, just thinking it would have been good if you changed position at some stage in order to avoid mom's feet, but not always possible because one tries to be as still as possible not to disturb the scene. On the other hand I feel they provide some context, so not an issue to me.

Really sweet scene and I wish to see more from this sighting if possible, have you any images with them trying to feed on the wildebeest or walking around?

Kind regards,

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Haseeb, welcome back and great to have you posting again, hope it's not a fleeting glimpse. :w3


as on one side they were ruthless predators and on the other, calm and caring mothers.

It does work and the angle for me aids the capture nicely, good, clear, line of sight of the cub nursing. I would come in a bit on the LHS and if you have it a tad more above, it's a wee bit tight I feel. The lights look good, with detail, but the cubs for me are a tad dark, opening up and a bit richer to my eye helps, but I wasn't there. Nice detail and the DoF works, possibly 1/1600 might have been better as they are static, albeit the ISO may drop to 640 so not much difference.

Where in Bots was this?

Attached is just a thought Haseeb, but opening things up, shows also the original sharpening, nothing added.

TFS
Steve

[haseeb badar]

Thank you Gabriela and Steve , much appreciated.

@ Gabriela -- I am not sure whether I managed frames with mothers face included, will have to check. I have posted images with cubs on the kill , have more from the series to post, so will definitely share here.
Parks in India have also opened for tourism, but i am not sure when I could venture out, things are still looking bad here.

@ Steve: Well, your RP is quite good in terms of crop. I liked the slightly brighter version of yours, but something in between the two might suffice.
This was taken in Savute.
No firm commitments but I will try my best to be as regular as possible.

[John Mack]

A nice clear view of these cubs nursing. The light is nice, framing as well. Detail looks nice.

[haseeb badar]

Thank you John, much appreciated.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I think you concentrated on the small cubs and framed with the mum's legs am I right? I quite like it but I do sort of miss here head. Details in the cubs looks very good indeed. It is certainly an eye catching moment.

[haseeb badar]

Absolutely Jon, all my focus was on the cubs, but also being relatively close , i didnt want to disturb them and so i decided to frame it without moving. @200 mm they were all fitting in the frame nicely but the POV was looking quite high , so went tight to eliminate that angle.