Lions of Serengeti # 9

[Harshad Barve]

Dear all
These two buggers were basking in morning glorious golden light, I liked this frame ,
Kept loose to show wall of crater
D300 , 300/f4 at F8 , ISO 400
All C & C are most welcome
Harshad

PS , Previous frame can be seen HERE (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/79619-Lions-of-Serengeti-3?highlight=)

[Grant Atkinson]

Harshad, nice powerful lion shot with good light on the lions, and far off depth created by crater wall. Good manes on these two. Nicely done. I am not sure if I would like a little less space on the left or not?
cheers
Grant

[Jay Gould]

Mate, you hit the jackpot! I would give this a pano crop as Morkel suggested in #3.

[Morkel Erasmus]

fabulous shot Harshadbhai - great specimens in great light - you must have smiled broad when seeing this :)

love the depth with crater wall - but Jay guessed it, I would pano here too..crop just a bit from the top.

I love their thick golden manes - typical of open grassland lions. Here our Kalahari lions have manes like that (although they have the famous black manes), and the lions in the bush like in Kruger have manes that are thinned out by the branches, thorns and thickets, causing them not to appear as imposing.

[Hilary Hann]

Lovely image, the caldera wall is always a good background. Pano crop would work but this works as presented in my view as well.

[Robert Amoruso]

In the OP, the left lion's head is at a Rule of Thirds power point. This helps to balance image, place the lions on the left and show the environment.

The pano crop can work if done from the top as Morkel suggests.

I would also suggest moving the power point to a location equal-distant the two lions heads.

You could try a "sort-of" pano crop with the vertical thirds intersecting each lion's head. Much tighter then Morkel's suggestion. I have that on my screen now and like it.

Regardless of the final version, I love the look of the lion's and the light falling on them.

[Harshad Barve]

IMHO with Pano crop, effect of great crater wall will be lost , WDYS ,
Robert would love to see your version
TFS

[Marc Mol]

Two fine males here Harshad in glorious expansive light. Would crop the top 1/5th for mine and still have plenty of crater landscape for enrichment here.:w3
TFS

[Steve Canuel]

Beautiful light here Harshad and two fine specimens. Although a pano crop works well too, I like it as posted for the reason you composed it.

[Ken Watkins]

Harshad,

I think I preferred the other post, up front and in your face:w3

I would leave this as it is unless you feel obliged to follow rules.

[Harshad Barve]

I would leave this as it is unless you feel obliged to follow rules.

I love to create non-ruled frames :bg3:

[Steve Kaluski]

Glad you kept it open to include the crater.

TFS
Steve

[Russell Johnson]

Agree with most points, great image.

Glad you kept the environmental aspect to the image.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

the light , the perspective and the royal beasta make up for a very powerful image indeed !!