No Escape

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is an image from one of my most epic sightings of my wildlife photography career. It all went down early one morning last November at a waterhole in Etosha, Namibia. I was the only vehicle to head to this waterhole at dawn. As I arrived, I drove behind 2 male lions running ahead towards a lone giraffe bull that was already dragging his legs from fatigue (the pride must have chased him down for a couple of hours already).


Soon, the big guy stopped and turned around to make his last stand. This is the first image I was able to capture as I stopped my SUV and positioned for the battle that was to ensue...


Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR-II @ 105mm
f4.0 | 1/250 SS | ISO-1400
Full frame

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Morkel - one can feel the tension building as they circle him. Great story telling image, well captured. I can't wait to see the confrontation play out. I don't think I'd change anything.

TFS,
Rachel

[Loi Nguyen]

Morkel, the image tells a powerful story and it is clear the giraffe knows there is no escape. Great colors and sky. You framed it just right. TFS. Loi

[Tom Graham]

Love it. Composition with giraffe in center, lions left and right looking at him. The tension comes through so well. Excellent background and sky. Techs great as always.
I've heard said that it is dangerous to be close to such a battle. The giraffe can run or fall into your vehicle, their long legs dropping the body and/or head into the vehicle. You ever heard of such?

Tom

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Awesome image with lots of interest and good positioning and framing. Cant wait to see what followed!! TFS.
Regards,
Sanjeev

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Morkel,

good moment and very well taken the tension in such situation. I personally would have backed up with the car quite a bit. I have witnessed a few times that animals got trapped by cars or the cars just standing in the way to escape! There was then no escape for the victims. I like to keep it fair for the animals/victims at least to leave them space, if they can run! Not always given.
I am sure you have given enough space for the Giraffe to escape, which I doubt there was any room left from the lions!

Very nice image. Did you pull a gradient over the sky?

Ciao
Anette

[Robert Kimbrell]

A very powerful shot Morkel, What drama you found here. Nice the way the sky brings color into the shot.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I am holding some of these images back for a bit so I might not continue the series immediately .
Anette - I was about 20-30m away so enough room for stuff to happen as they may (it was tempting to drive closer and shoot with a 24-70mm haha ) but yes as per Tom you never know where they will fall and I didn't want it to be on my car...

[Neil Burton]

Hope it will not be subscription based viewing for the rest of the series? ;) come on, post more... now despite the sky being a bit bright the fact I am holding my breath, as you may have been in the car, means i can forgive it...

[Morkel Erasmus]

Neil - I already brought down the brightness of the sky HEAPS. Any more and the image started to look whacky to me.
you can check - the whites aren't clipped (dynamic range of the D800 is amazing!)

[Ian Cassell]

As the others, I am holding my breath to see the following images. The story told by this image is overpowering.

[Neil Burton]

Neil - I already brought down the brightness of the sky HEAPS. Any more and the image started to look whacky to me.
you can check - the whites aren't clipped (dynamic range of the D800 is amazing!)

Let you off then :p

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel, an image of impeding doom and you cannot help, but ask that ongoing question, does the prey know it's fate?

Nice positioning and I like the placement of the lions, even the tree in the BKG plays it's part with the Giraffe overlapping it. Personally I would selectively take the Blue down, not the Cyan, as there is some creeping into the head, but you were there.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Morkel,
i have a dream ………..
Lucky you have been to witness this,love the look of the LH lion to the prey.
Overall very nice with good detail and colors, but i think slightly too cool for my taste.
Like the comp and the overall image design.

TFS Andreas

[Steve Canuel]

Really shows off the size difference here. I like the BG habitat and sky and the look of the lion on the left as he seems to be weighing his options for attack.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Morkel, a great moment captured with good suggestions mentioned already...looking forward to seeing the aftermath images.

[dankearl]

Can't wait for the next ones.
What a scene and well captured.

[Ashleigh Scully]

This is so cool. I love the way you framed this with the lions off to the sides. You also captured the mood with the giraffe's look.

I have a technical question if that's OK? With 3 subjects and each one at a different distance where is your sensor focusing? Also I thought with something like this you should have more DOF and a higher aperture. How did you get all subjects so sharp?

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is so cool. I love the way you framed this with the lions off to the sides. You also captured the mood with the giraffe's look.

I have a technical question if that's OK? With 3 subjects and each one at a different distance where is your sensor focusing? Also I thought with something like this you should have more DOF and a higher aperture. How did you get all subjects so sharp?

Ashleigh, on high res the frontmost lion is quite OOF .
I was never going to have enough DOF for 2 lions and a giraffe circling around each other in this light, I would have had to shoot at f11 or something.
I mainly focused on the giraffe and knew that whichever lion was attacking it would probably be reasonably in the field of focus.