Everything a Lion Wants

[Paul Taylor]

Food and sex, that is... The faces show who was more interested in which of the two. Maasai Mara near Rhino Ridge December 2009.

http://paul-k-imburu.smugmug.com/photos/803439180_9tpwk-XL.jpg

Sony A700 + 70-400 @ 400mm f/8 1/250s ISO 400

I cropped a little off the right and top. More drastically I used a layer created from a picture taken a few seconds before this to create a sliver of extra canvas on the left to restore just the very tip of the lioness' paw, as she moved it slightly during the mating and I didn't notice. :(

[Steve Kaluski]

A good capture with great detail & aggression. My only wish would have been to see the WHOLE picture rather than the portrait version, this really would have been a 'corker' of a shot. Unless you have the X rated version you could share with us?:D:D:D

[Harshad Barve]

terrific image , you gotta love those faces , if Mine I may crop tighter and will put full emphasis on faces only
TFS

[Stephen Stephen]

Well captured moment Paul. Harshad's suggestion is an interesting one but it would be really apparent is that type of crop that the lioness has lost a few front teeth in her upper jaw.

[Ken Watkins]

Expressions are priceless, presumably within seconds there was the usual roaring and biting.
Always a pleasure to capture one of these moments.

[Todd Frost]

Nice interaction captured. Agree that a full horizontal would have been preferable, maybe you have that also. Nice detail captured. TFS
Todd

[Austin Thomas]

Great action Paul,

I think it would stand a tighter crop personally.

tfs

Austin

[Stu Bowie]

I think all options mentioned above would work. Good "action" captured, and the expressions tells the rest.

[Morkel Erasmus]

love the bloody face and grimace of the lioness...like it as presented but interested to see other shots in the sequence with different framings perhaps?

[Paul Taylor]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Again, it is so interesting and helpful to hear what people think. Wish I had the "whole/big picture" view of this but I had decided to go in closer and the mating didn't last long of course. In any case, for some reason I was in a "choose your shots, don't just blast away" mood that morning, and I only took 5 shots of the whole mating over 12 seconds. A bit silly, actually. Another time I shot them wide but the angle was not interesting. I'm pretty sure this is the best one, although I'll definitely have another look at the others with new ideas, now.