THE SPARRING LIONS | Masai Mara

[RakeshDhareshwar]

On my first day at the Mara , we encountered this small group of a lioness and it's juvinile cubs . When we reached the place ,all of them were resting . Our guide said that the lions in the Mara during migration were quite lazy . I noticed a streak of naughtiness in one of the cubs and was sure of some action , so asked him to wait for some time . Reluctantly though , he waited , but assured me that nothing would happen . After a 5 minute wait , this particular cub , started irritating another one and it erupted into a sparring match .

My 99th thread on BPN and I just love this journey . Thanx a lot for the encouragement and critiques over the last few months . It has indeed helped me evolve a bit faster and better . Thanx to one and all .

Camera : Canon 1D Mk III
Lens : 600mm f4 IS
Aperture : f 6.3
Shutters : 1/250
Exp comp : + .33 EV
Speed : ISO 1250 .

Cheers,
Rakesh

[Ken Watkins]

Rakesh,

You did well in persuading your guide to stay, they normally rarely do that.

Where there are young Lions there is nearly always some type of action unless it is really hot, patience nearly always pays off:w3

[DanWalters]

Really like the interaction and the surrounding grass. Glad he waited!

[Rachel Hollander]

Your perseverence paid off. Good action with a pleasing bg. I like the curled tail too.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rakesh, I like the interaction and the BKG tones/colours really helps isolate the subject.

Obviously and this is in an ideal world, but would have preferred the subject more to the left to balance the composition and a hint more space above, as the dead space to the left seems to push everything to the right. However congratulations on nailing the action.

TFS
Steve

[Kiran Khanzode]

Beautiful, the action was captured very well.

[gail bisson]

Lovely! I would add more room to the right if you have it and punch up the image with a touch more contrast or go to selective coloring in CS5 and add 2 points of black in the neutrals and blacks to punch the image up a bit,
gail

[Hilary Hann]

Good points made already, but I really like the tonal range and the playful nature of the cubs. Nice image.

[Stu Bowie]

Pacience always pays off in wildlife. Great interaction captured Rakesh, and I really like the surrounding grasses. If you have more space on top, you could create a vertical to balance out each side.

[Harshad Barve]

Beautiful, the action was captured very well.may add some USM for web presentation
TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

Missed this one...super action here Rakesh...getting this in a vertical format would have been even better (as it is you will need to crop to square to get to a vertical format).
I agree on adding some 'punch' and would also tone down overall highlights a bit using Robert's action (see sticky threads)...:S3: