Liuwa lion

[Egil Droge]

This male lion was walking over the plain in Liuwa Plain NP in the early morning after raiding some hyaenas of the last pieces of their wildebeest kill. One of only 3 lions there, and a young male. These males are still young, just about 4 years old, but their manes look really promising, this is the more dominant but smaller of the two males.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1387/5169351347_ec4fe509e3_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/egilio/5169351347/)
Liuwa lion (http://www.flickr.com/photos/egilio/5169351347/) by egilio (http://www.flickr.com/people/egilio/), on Flickr

[Steve Kaluski]

A different take on the normal posting we see, like it. The look and raised paw make it for me.

If I was to be really picky :D then I would like to see some blue just to separate the stomach and grass, remove the black dot (trees?) just on the horizon lhs and to straighten the horizon, but that might tilt the lion too much and look odd perhaps.

TFS
Steve :cheers:

[Ken Watkins]

What a marvelous shot in marvelous light, the horizon looks odd but so what. This is probably the best Male Lion image I have seen in a long long time.

Are there any cubs yet African Parks is doing a magnificent job there but it will soon become yet another place for the rich and uninterested, tenders have gone out for "luxury" lodges, shame:(

[Rachel Hollander]

A nice looking male in good light. I like the pose of the elongated body mid stride. Well done.

TFS,
Rachel

[Marc Mol]

Very nice image here Egil in magic light, the pose and stride really captures the essence of a Lion on patrol.
He is one handsome male.
Only nit would be to take out the black on extreme left.
TFS :cheers:

[Ken Watkins]

Sorry I made a mistake in my earlier comment, it did need some rotation and it has not spoilt it I do not think, 1 degree CCW does the trick:)

Still staggered by the beauty of this image.:cheers::cheers: again

[Katie Rupp]

Grogeous light, wonderful low angle, love the eye contact, the long body and the raised foot...the repost makes it perfect. Congrats and tfs.

[Egil Droge]

That does look better Ken, thanks for pointing it out. And thank you everybody for the comments!
Sadly there are no cubs yet, they've had 3 periods of mating but nothing yet. It might still take time to get her reproductive organs back to work since they haven't been working for so long, but it might be too late. I don't really believe in a 'Liuwa'-gene. If I see those males, which are still pretty young, whose manes show great potential.

@Steve: I have a picture similar to this of Lady where there is space between horizon and belly, might post it later this week.

[Ken Watkins]

Egil,

No problem, easy to do minor changes to this majestic image. I had quite forgetten how old she was but maybe there is still time.

Look forward to seeing her picture

[Morkel Erasmus]

I take it this is one of the lions I saw re-released into Liuwa on that Nat Geo (or was it Animal Planet) program?

gorgeous look, pose and light here Egil! I love the raised paw and the blue sky. Was his paw bleeding?

If you have more space, I'd be interested to see a version with even more space in front of the lion, perhaps going for a 6x17 landscape crop?

[Harshad Barve]

Winner all the way :cheers::cheers::cheers:
TFS

[Robert Amoruso]

Exceptionally well done for all the reasons mentioned.

I too wish for that stomach too have had a bit of blue sky separating it.

[Egil Droge]

Thanks for all the comments! Really means a lot for me to get all those compliments on this critical forum!

This is one of the two released males, they've grown A LOT in just over a year! Not really any more space in front of him on this image sadly, I do have other images though.
His paw wasn't bleeding, he just came of a wildebeest kill.