the dark side

[Andrew Aveley]

A pride of lions had killed a buffalo in a heavy thicket with very few openings to get a clear shot. Our guide positioned us as best he could.I managed to use slight downhill angle to get the low angle . Only a small crop from top right. Lighting was spot light . Used custom WB settings and minor adjustments in LR 3 .

Settings 1/100 th F 6.3 ISO 1250 Canon 1 D MK 3 and 300 F2.8 L IS on panning plate and badger gear bean bag. Location: Sabi Sands , Greater Kruger National Park

[BenBotha]

I like the out of fucus fore ground, it makes the face and eye more prominent. Light is handled well.

Ben

[Rachel Hollander]

Andrew - I'm curious to see what the gurus on here think. While I love the intensity of the eye, it took me a second to realize it was another lion in the shadows in the foreground and now that I realize it I find the lion in the fg somewhat distracting (probably because of the shadows). I'm still amazed at the sharpness and clarity you got with the spot.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andrew Aveley]

thanks Ben & Rachel. Rachel this is more one of those personal preference images methinks ! Thanks for taking the time to view and comment

[Marina Scarr]

I find this capture extremely powerful, interesting, and thought provoking. It tells a story. The eye is captivating. Then when you step back and see the FG lion and the kill, it just makes it for me. It's always nice to see a photographer thinking outside the box, and it gives me inspiration and ideas.

[peter delaney]

Agree with Marina... so many people play it safe with their photography... good to see some one experiment....well done Andrew....

[Myer Bornstein]

I like the effect, the sharp eye tells one thing and the OOF lion in the foreground to me completes the story. This definitely is a picture when the OOF FG is important and because most of the time the image in the FG OOF subtracts from a picture. to me anyway

[Paul Taylor]

I agree with the positive comments above and think this is a great shot. WB adjustment and exposure look just about perfect to me, and I would guess they were not that easy to get right? Fine work.

The only part that I'm ambivalent about is the bottom, to the left of your signature. It's okay as shown but I can't help wondering how it would look with slightly less intense shadows around the jaws and nose and with a little more room at the bottom. If nothing to be done, I might also think about cropping some of that part out, just to play.

But that's close to nitpicking, as I really do like it very much as it is.

[Loong-Tat Wong]

HI Andrew
Love the intensity of the image with the light,shadows and the sharpness of the eye but just wondering if it would be even better with a tighter portrait crop showing just enough of the OOF lion in the foreground. Just my humble thoughts!

[Andrew Aveley]

thanks for all the valued feed back. I have many ideas on how to present this image now and will consider all ideas.