Eating and being eaten

[Egil Droge]

My first post here and I'd like to post one of the more dramatic scenes a came across last year.
5 Lions (2 adult females, subadult male, subadult female and male cub) took down a buffalo cow and a calf. The buffalo cow proved to be pregnant too...
It all happened so quickly, see lions, see buffaloes, lions on buffalo all within 2 minutes. I didn't catch a proper image of a lion on the back of a buffalo because it happened so close to me that I had to switch lenses which temporarily jammed my camera :S

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4479445883_75abd56141_o.jpg

Canon Eos 30D
ISO 200
Sigma 150-500mm @ 213 mm
f5.6
1/640

I cropped the image for the composition, played a bit with the levels and sharpened it after resizing.

[Morkel Erasmus]

very dramatic and heart-wrenching image Egil! :eek: nature is cruel to be kind
welcome here and we hope to see many more images from your lens.

[Alfred Forns]

Big Warm Welcome Egil !!! Must have been an incredible experience all that commotion in such a short time !! Hope you nailed a few !!

I like the framing and direct eye contact, lots of feel and emotion here !! Would only darken the side of the face a little. Tough situation and great result !!! Looking forward to more images !!!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Superb experience. Once I had a similar problem when my 10D had jammed. Removing the battery helped, but I had lost the situation.

I like the eye contact. The diagonal formed by the body and tail portion of the prey is nice. Look forward to more from the series.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Robert Amoruso]

Egil,

For an alternate interpretation I opened up the shadows, tame highlights and sharpened the heads of the lions more for the repost. Below this thread is the Shadows/Highlights adjustment settings from PSCS4 and Shadow/Highlight adjustment on BG copy.

[Robert Amoruso]

Shadows/Highlights adjustment settings from PSCS4 for the above.

[Alfred Forns]

Good job on the PS Robert but like the mood of the original much better, might only want to have a hint of detail in the lower left corner !

[Egil Droge]

Thanks Robert! You revealed a pretty easy to use, yet never by me explored feature, of PS to me!
Not too sure about the sharpening, but that might be because of sharpening on an already sharpened image.
I do like what the shadows/highlight tweaking does on the right and on the cubs' face though.

[Kiran Khanzode]

Wow...a fetus, that's a first !! Must have been an awesome experience to witness !