March theme - Eye Contact

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Dear BPN Friends,

Been out of contact for some time and missed the interaction with you all, lots happening on our side of the woods (all good), I am trying to learn again how to process images after three months' break and making a rather timid comeback… The last Kalahari trip was rich in sightings but not as rewarding in terms of photography, lots of lovely rain and the desert suddenly turned into a kaleidoscope of flowers and colour, quite amazing really and I shall try to share with you some of the most memorable moments in the weeks to come. Here is an image of a lioness we met for the first time in 2009, and we were fortunate to find her again this February in the company of her soulmate Fred (a very old male lion) and two subadults. I managed a few images of her as she approached the vehicle, this is the last of the lot as she got too close for the lens to focus…Cropped just a tad and then noticed the tiny bee drawing a bit of moisture from her right eye, therefore the title…a bit confusing perhaps, but I am glad to draw your attention anyway

Nikon D3S
Nikon 500mm F4
ISO 1250
F7.1
ss 1/1250

PS Any thoughts on the crop? Would you remove a bit from the top?

[Arthur Morris]

Nice detail, EXP, and SH. But the crop leaves me wanting more. Or less. Probably less, as in a nice pano of the eyes.... A small bee indeed.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hope you like this better, cropped tighter this time

[Arthur Morris]

I like it much better but would prefer a bit more on the top. Like this :).

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gabriela - Welcome back! You and Andre were missed. Great first image with excellent sharpness and detail, including that tiny bee. Beautiful light. I agree about turning it more into a pano. I like Artie's last rp but might come in a bit from the lhs to get rid of the tuft of hair in the ulc. Looking forward to seeing more from your trip.

TFS and participating in this month's theme,
Rachel

[Arthur Morris]

A common theme for tonight: I very much like the triangular tuft of fur in the ulc. Again, for me, it balances the negative space on the right very nicely :)

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Arthur-I like your crop best, adds emphasis to the eyes and that tiny bit of tuft in the upper left corner helps frame the face - much appreciated!

Kind regards,

[Nancy Bell]

Very informative learning experience to read and view the thoughts on cropping this image. I do lean towards Artie's post. Having light on the brow of the darker side of the face brings a good balance to this view of the head.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela ,
welcome back after your trip, hope you had a good one.
Nice one to start with, excellent detail, colors and some nice tonal depth in the image.I vote for Artie`s crop , too. More emphasis on the eyes,i think.
The left eye is just great………...

TFS Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Love the pano crop - and the little fly/bee makes it more than just a shot of a big cat's eyes.
Welcome back and I can't wait to hear more about your trip!
Thanks for participating in the theme, Gabriela. Take note you don't have to type in "march theme" before the post title, there's a little "prefix" dropbox on top of the title box when posting the image. Click on that, click on "theme", and you're set...

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, for Artie's crop fits the bill well.

My only additional thoughts would be:
- bring a bit more life in the eyes, dropping a bit of shadow in there also seems to pull out some more detail
- to remove the fly on the bridge of the nose, it's irritating me and I am sure the lioness.

TFS
Steve

[Gabriela Plesea]

Thank you Nancy, Andreas and Morkel,

Morkel, I cannot say our last Kalahari trip was very rewarding in terms of photography, we had numerous amazing sightings but often in such poor lighting conditions that we had to drop the cameras and resign ourselves to observing what was going on. One such occasion was at Mata Mata one late evening, when a male lion chased a subadult (offspring of the female lioness he was pursuing) over the camp fence.

I always take a videocamera along, when I am not taking photographs I love recording all sorts of things and making a little movie to share with family and friends. And I am glad you liked this image, bee and fly and all. This is a close-up of the female/partner of our dearest Fred, a lion we have first met in 2009 at Mata Mata. We were so happy to see the two of them were still together! Fred is about 16 years of age and fading, bottom teeth are gone, he has arthritis, is full of scars and his body fat is very low, yet there were two more youngsters with him and his lioness when we saw them in February…I must say this was the highlight of the trip and I noticed Andre was working on an image of Fred last night, hope he will share it with you soon.

Hope you all enjoy the week-end, heavy rain predicted here and maybe some more PP work...

[Gabriela Plesea]

Ha ha, Steve, good evening, sorry about the irritating fly, in fact I had one buzzing around my face as I was taking images of this lioness and I remember telling Andre I wished I had a chemical of some sorts to eliminate those annoying flies in the Kalahari! They seem to stick to you and sometimes they bite, something I have learnt to put up with, and especially when using the videocamera-any attempt to chase those annoying creatures will result in deleting that particular shot...

So I will bring more life into the eyes (thank you) but the fly I am not deleting (LOL), flies are part of the environment and as much as we hate them (me and my lions) we will never be able to get rid of them

Warmest regards,

[Morkel Erasmus]

Gabriela I heard about the lions coming into the camp - that must've been something! I'd love to hear the full story.
I believe Fred is the same guy we labelled as "Badmouth" because of his broken jaw. Saw him a couple of times in the Mata Mata area since 2009, but I thought that Fred (from Ousus fame) lived in the Nossob river? Off-topic, sorry...

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello again Morkel, great to hear from you again, we thought and spoke of you while in the Kalahari and really wished you were there that evening You would have enjoyed the MataMata "episode" and we would have concluded the evening with a well-deserved glass of wine, I am sure! We spend little time on the South African side when in the KTP but I always make sure Andre includes Mata Mata on the booking list, because we have had some amazing sightings there ( do you remember Eleanor the cheetah, and her cubs? And the Spotted hyaena den with the little cub?). Anyway, I guess I'd be going way off topic if I were to tell you the whole Mata Mata lion story, but we'd love to sit down with you one week-end and chat, let us know when you can take some time off, you are welcome to join us here in Hluhluwe whenever you find the time!

Warmest regards,