Lion Aftershock!

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 1Dmk3, Canon 70-200f2.8IS II, handheld. SS 1/800sec, f/5.6, iso800. No cropping. 70mm focal length. Metering Eval, Ai Servo. Overcast conditions, Savuti Bush Camp, Botswana, April 2011. Processed in ACR6, removed magenta cast, used Adjust brush to add contrast, clarity and balance out bright areas on lions. No nr. Prepared for web using CS5. Would have liked to have left a little more space above the male lion but was already at 70mm.
All C and C welcome
cheers

[Geoff Warnock]

Great action Grant! Is the pitch-fork shape visible on the lioness' belly a blade of grass in front or a scar?

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - I'm traveling so just checking into the forums quickly but the thumbnail jumped out at me. I agree with your self-critique about more room on top but great image. Nice action, sharpness and DOF. Well done.:5

TFS,
Rachel

[Jamie Douglas]

Nice interaction Grant. A little more room at the tiop would have been nice like you said but I love how my eyes are drawn straight to the open jaws.

[Sid Garige]

good timing Grant. nice interaction very well captured.

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Geoff, Sid, Jamie and Rachel, for looking and commenting. Geoff, the shape on the lionesses belly is grass in front of her. I can clone it out if need be, but have left it for now. thanks again
cheers
grant

[Steve Kaluski]

I would agree Grant on your own self assessment, however, congrats on achieving what you have got. :cheers:

[Geoff Warnock]

Thanks for the info Grant, just the interesting shape that caught my eye, but it's the action in your shot that takes center stage.

[Hilary Hann]

I really like the action in this, but part of me would love to have seen a zoomed in shot of the lion's head, what an amazing expression and detail. I'm not suggesting cropping this, only if it had been possible to have got this image and another at the same time zeroing on the lion. Not possible, but this is still visually very appealing. TFS.

[Pieter de Waal]

Fantastic interaction captured Grant, expression of the male is awesome with great detail. Space has been mentioned, TFS.

[Russell Johnson]

It is always difficult to get a different perspective of lions mating.

Great expressions and sharp where it needs to be.

[Harshad Barve]

Great action here , top class
TFS

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Steve, Harshad, Hilary, Russell, Pieter and Geoff, for taking the time to look and comment. Hilary, I did shoot some tight versions but obviously not of this particular dismount...every one is a little different. This pair took no noticeo of us at all and I was able to spend a little time with them on two different days. I will get to posting sometime ahead...

[Hilary Hann]

Grant, somehow I just knew you would have taken some tight versions as well! :S3:

[Morkel Erasmus]

top class action here Grant...agree on your self-crit

I am hectically busy but did a quick job here as I find shooting in overcast conditions, especially with green surroundings, results in a slight green cast by the camera sensor. Not sure why, Roger can maybe illuminate me.

Color Balance adjusted:
Magenta/Green slider
Shadows -2
Mids -3
Highlights -3

what do you think?

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Lovely interaction Grant, male head angle is perfect, also like the show of teeth TFS:cheers:

[Roger Clark]

top class action here Grant...agree on your self-crit

I am hectically busy but did a quick job here as I find shooting in overcast conditions, especially with green surroundings, results in a slight green cast by the camera sensor. Not sure why, Roger can maybe illuminate me.

Color Balance adjusted:
Magenta/Green slider
Shadows -2
Mids -3
Highlights -3

what do you think?

I'm a little late to this one; been working on a multi-tens of gigabyte image--taxing every machine I touch..

Morkel,
The green cast is probably due to reflection from the surrounding vegetation.

Grant, I like Morkel's repost, it fixed the green cast nicely. Regarding tight or wide, people here are probably seeing I tend to image tight. But I like your wide view here. I would not clone out anything, and don't think there is a need for more room on the top. If you shot tight, people would be asking for wide:w3. The only solution is a rig with two cameras: mount the wide on top of the telephoto and make the shutter on one to also fire the other.:w3:w3:w3 Actually, I often do image both (but not peak action like this). I always have my 70-200 ot 28-135 on my 1D2. But I usually like the tight shots. But I really like your wide image.

Anyway, well done!

Roger

[LouBuonomo]

Love the wide look on this Grant, like Morkel's repost.

See you in a few weeks !
Lou

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Morkel for taking the time to repost and correct the colour cast. I will revisit my original sometime...thanks also Roger, Lou and Vivaldo for commenting. Roger, I obviously never got to photograph this particular event twice, but I did get to shoot the same lion and lioness about five more times during this mating session. One one occasion I was very close and purposefully shot tight. I will post it in a week or twos time..
Thanks again
Grant