From the same Giraffe kill sighting posted a few days ago, I hope that this is not considered quite as brutal. This female is chewing on a nice bit of what looks like leg, please note that Lions generally have their eyes closed whilst chewing.
Taken in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, 3rd July 2012.
I like this a lot. Great colors and light. The meat makes this special. I don't consider this to be brutal. "Brutal" is a human value and has no place in nature or in the life of a lion. If they don't kill, they die. I was just reading a book on wildlife photography in East Africa and there is a shot of a young lion trying to kill a wildebeest. The photographer wrote that it took an hour before a female lion finally finished the wildebeest - the young lion's mouth was not yet large enough to suffocate the wildebeest. This was one of the most intense shots I've ever seen. May be brutal to some but daily reality in the Mara / Serengeti ecosystem. Markus
The difference between this one and the last post is that this just has a faceless, unidentifiable piece of meat versus the more graphic view of the half-eaten face of another animal. The viewer could see this as some "ugly" old warthog or common old gnu rather than a cute baby giraffe (doesn't matter to the lion but sure matters to the prey!) Showing photos of something getting eaten gets more difficult to sell to the viewer the higher one goes up on the evolutionary ladder. This one also looks like softer light and I like the slightly opened eye of the lioness. The meat looks delicious too!
Thanks very much for your interesting comments, I understand that most people really do not like this type of image preferring something that does not show the reality of life in the African bush. I think it is essential to show this as I prefer to tell the whole story!
If we all took studio type images of cuteness and or action then reality would be diminished. This attitude towards death has been increased by the awful Wildlife documentaries shown on TV nowadays, where everything is in danger but nothing really gets shown, it takes an awful long time for Lions to kill a buffalo, and it is not nice to watch.
Steve, I agree with you about the meat, but I think I would prefer it a little less RAW
I tried playing around with the saturation somewhat (Hue/Saturation: lowered Master saturation and increased Red saturation) and liked the result but don't necessarily feel it is better or worse then your posted original.
Good DOF keeps the lion and kill sharp. Nice/pleasing OOF BG compliments the subject.
If the leg piece was not too long, I would prefer to have seen the whole section of it in the image. If it was too long and would be outside the composition, just right as posted.
Thanks for your comment, this is basically full frame, as I remember it the rest of the leg was more than likely buried under a pile of hungry cubs, isolating anything in this sort of mayhem is nearly always difficult
I also really like this. I do agree that brutal is not a good description. Life and death is just daily life for lions. I guess for us too, really. This portrait is really good, a good look, BG and light makes it. Even the meat looks tasty