Morkel Erasmus
10-31-2009, 04:26 AM
On one morning our recent trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, we encountered this lion couple busy with the protracted business of mating (sometimes they carry on for 7 days).
In between bouts of copulating, they would lie around listlessly, building up strength for the next round :). They can get quite aggressive with each other during the act.
I captured this one a few moments before she allowed him again. Just loved the look he gave her, and the look she gave me. My aperture was on f5.6 and forgot to stop down a notch for this shot, but in the end I loved the effect of the king being slightly OOF, with his gaze fixed on his bride in 'wanton adoration', and she looking quite self-conscious.
This one will go straight into my canvas print portfolio.
Applied slight additional Gaussian blur to the BG since it was a bit busy. As posted it's about 90% of full frame, cropped out some branches top and right and rotated 1 degree CW.
Techs:
Canon 40D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 285mm
f5.6 @ 1/500 SS @ ISO-100
In between bouts of copulating, they would lie around listlessly, building up strength for the next round :). They can get quite aggressive with each other during the act.
I captured this one a few moments before she allowed him again. Just loved the look he gave her, and the look she gave me. My aperture was on f5.6 and forgot to stop down a notch for this shot, but in the end I loved the effect of the king being slightly OOF, with his gaze fixed on his bride in 'wanton adoration', and she looking quite self-conscious.
This one will go straight into my canvas print portfolio.
Applied slight additional Gaussian blur to the BG since it was a bit busy. As posted it's about 90% of full frame, cropped out some branches top and right and rotated 1 degree CW.
Techs:
Canon 40D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 285mm
f5.6 @ 1/500 SS @ ISO-100