Lion near Kruger

[Chad Caswell]

I created this during a safari in South Africa in Mid May, it was dusk out so the guide used a spotlight to help give the face a nice warm glow.

Any C&C would be greatly appreciated.

Chad

Mark IV, 70-200 f2.8 IS hand held

Exposure Time: 1/50 sec
Exposure Program: Manual
ISO Speed Rating: 800
Lens Aperture: f/4.0
Flash: No Flash
Focal Length: 200.00 mm

[Steve Kaluski]

Nicely composed image Chad, with good depth and detail.

My only concern would be the use of a spotlight to illuminate the subject.

TFS
Steve

[Marc Mol]

Nicely composed Chad, don't have an issue with using the spot light as long as it's not overly obvious and the color/tone is not washed out, here the enhancement is pretty well balanced.
TFS

[Rachel Hollander]

Nice stare and pose. I like the extended tail. Spotlight doesn't bother me when it is used correctly and doesn't bother the animal.

TFS,
Rachel

[Stu Bowie]

Good eye contact Chad, with a super lazy pose. I feel the spot light has worked out well here. When I was in Sabi a few years ago, the rangers would move the spot light over the animal, so as not to blind them. We would then use flash to bring out the subject.

[Santosh Tigga Saligram]

Ooh, that's a delightful one. Love the subtly used spotlight, which actually looks quite natural and like the very last remnants of late evening light, the pleasant background and the distant blue hills!

[Dumay de Boulle]

Use of the spotlight is a big debate / issue in our industry. Im a nature guide/ ranger and we only use spotlights with a red filter on the animal for illumination...Does not make for good images but limits the damaging light that goes into the predators eyes....Its estimated that a Lion/ Leopards eyes allow about 8x more light in than the human eye...So our spotlights have a strength of 1 000 000 candles they see 8 000 000. If I was to recommend anything to anyone would be to rather use a flash when taking images of these guys at night or poor light conditions.

This is a beautiful image, love the comp and color...He is a gorgeous male...Where was this taken?

[Chad Caswell]

Use of the spotlight is a big debate / issue in our industry. Im a nature guide/ ranger and we only use spotlights with a red filter on the animal for illumination...Does not make for good images but limits the damaging light that goes into the predators eyes....Its estimated that a Lion/ Leopards eyes allow about 8x more light in than the human eye...So our spotlights have a strength of 1 000 000 candles they see 8 000 000. If I was to recommend anything to anyone would be to rather use a flash when taking images of these guys at night or poor light conditions.

This is a beautiful image, love the comp and color...He is a gorgeous male...Where was this taken?

First off thanks to all who have commented and expressed their concerns about the use of a spotlight, this is a first for me to experience a Lion in a safari vehicle, I for one was a bit concerned about the use of a spot light and knowing that this was a cat and I know how well they see at night, and how sensitive they are to light.. my first thoughts when the guide grabbed the light (BTW was a very weak beam, yellow cast to it) were SAWEEET! after the first few photos... that looks killer in my camera LCD screen, they my second thoughts were HOLY CRAP we're going to PISS this KAT off and we are going to be dinner for the night :eek: I'm on the bubble due to lack of knowledge in using this type of lighting process on wildlife, from where I live "Michigan" they go on night prowl's for Owls, they use lights to eliminate the subjects during these hunts, I have yet to hear a word about damaging the animals eyes from the light, in hind sight I have seen lightning that is brighter than any spot light.. I appreciate your comment.

Dumay, About your concerns, I feel this will be a long debate even not knowing all the particulars. As far as where the location was I can only guess, it was at a 25,000 acre ranch located mid Kruger park (west side), 2 of its sides border the park. thank you for your positive feedback :S3:
Chad

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Nicely done Chad, for me spot light is the way to go as flash is normally to harsh. You did well, like the BG mountains, make comp interestingTFS :cheers:

[Dumay de Boulle]

Thanks for the reply Chad...Jus thought I would add some info to the thread. As I was saying in our industry the debate continues and we are one of the few who have done the transition to red filtered light, I suppose its the conservationist in me:S3: that wanted to bring it up...Regarding the owls we get a number of species as well here where I work and we also use the red filters on them.


I am so glad to see you had a great visit to SA and hope you come back soon!:S3:

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Chad . nice specimen and nice subtle colours in the late evening light.

[noelle zaleski]

Beautiful image Chad :S3:

[Morkel Erasmus]

the light worked well here and I love how he's lying on the mound Chad...

Regarding the spot: I know people who advocate for both sides of the argument, and many rangers in the Sabi-Sands claim to have done some research into this and one of their claims is that one of the oldest, most legendary leopards there named "Safari" (who has been naturally blind in one eye for years) is still a very successful nocturnal hunter even after enduring years of "spotlight torture" (tongue-in-cheek reference :w3). As Dumay said, the debate will wage on and neither side will probably concede ground.

[Chad Caswell]

the light worked well here and I love how he's lying on the mound Chad...

Regarding the spot: I know people who advocate for both sides of the argument, and many rangers in the Sabi-Sands claim to have done some research into this and one of their claims is that one of the oldest, most legendary leopards there named "Safari" (who has been naturally blind in one eye for years) is still a very successful nocturnal hunter even after enduring years of "spotlight torture" (tongue-in-cheek reference :w3). As Dumay said, the debate will wage on and neither side will probably concede ground.

Thanks for the visit and kind words, also for the tad bit of info as well about the leopard. :S3:

Chad

[Harshad Barve]

super like :cheers::cheers::cheers:
TFS