Access Denied

[Gabriela Plesea]

Nikon D3S
Nikon 500/F4
F5.6
1/1000s
ISO 8000

This rather oldish male lion made several unsuccessful - and rather polite - attempts to gain acceptance from a lioness and her young. Unlike at Mata Mata, there was no drama and no take over. One lonely, hungry lion trying to attach himself to this powerful, successful hunter and her cubs, repeatedly calling, watching them from a distance, hanging around, keeping distance respectfully. This image was taken just before 7 pm as this male arrived at Polentswa waterhole; within seconds the female disappeared. Just moments before we were watching her playing with her cubs nearby. She obviously did not want him, the burden of feeding him, the potential danger of having her cubs eliminated at some stage by the intruder. She soon disappeared into tall grasses along with her cubs, quiet as a breeze, soft as shadows.

Lighting conditions were very poor, a heavy thunderstorm was approaching and we were desperately wiping droplets of rain from our lenses. ISO 8000. The skies opened for a moment, I looked with disbelief at my settings on the bottom of the viewfinder and realised I had 1/1000s at F5.6, the lion male still walking purposefully towards the water hole, his eyes fixed on that spot where the lioness was only seconds before; I shot frame after frame, swearing under my breath because I did not have the guts to spare one second to stop and assess the situation. I could have dropped the ISO and thus less noise...

The result is, as you can see, a relatively grainy image of a very intense lion and a moment I can only describe in words, my images do not give justice to what we had seen and felt at the time. Nevertheless, I decided to share it with you. I tried to keep to the natural colours and only did basic adjustments. Some magenta crept in as I tried to lighten the blacks (lips, fur, nose) so I desaturated. No masking (apart from a luminance mask) and no blurring, lightened around the eyes with the dodge tool to get more detail. Not sure if I over-sharpened? I am more than happy to hear your comments and suggestions, this image is close to my heart and one very special sighting.

Kind regards,

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

The noise is mostly evident on the BG Gabriela, but not distractingly so - thus I think you've done very well here. The face is still respectably sharp so it's a keeper in my books. Well done!

[Neil Burton]

If I could get an ISO8000 shot out of a Canon to look like that I would be overjoyed! Excellent detail and colours for me!

[Douglas Bolt]

Excellent! The image captures well both the power and the sadness of the subject. Don't change a thing.

[Don Railton]

Gabriela,
I think this is a wonderful image, and if you are worried about the IQ of this image then you must think mine are rubbish...! I do understand you are a girl who seriously dislikes noise however. I also appreciate the story as well, nice to put the image in context. I love the flowing mane and the red mouth. He is handsome fella, albeit old. Something I might aim for myself...

Regards

Don


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Eric Dienesch]

Hello,
in my opnion this is a wonderfull image, these eyes are very special, the lions head position in the image is perfect.

I think, you`ve made a very good job !

Greetings Eric

[Andrew Merwin]

Gabriela,
I enjoyed your story about this lion—quite interesting.
I am unconcerned about the BG noise as I do not find it distracting.
I like the image a lot as the lion's face tells the story of a successful life. It is also emotive.
VWD. TFS.

[Rachel Hollander]

Gabriela - One can definitely feel his once majestic rule and power but that the passage of time is catching up with him. Sharpness looks fine. I like the comp and you have decent IQ for ISO 8000 but the noise is very noticeable and will be an obstacle to printing. Having not been to KTP I don't know if using flash was a possibility here. I find myself, in these situations where the light is so poor that you really need to crank up the ISO, enjoying the sighting rather than trying to capture it or perhaps taking a record shot just to remember the sighting.


TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gabriela, one cool looking image and at ISO8000 nice to see you exploring things.

Can't really comment on overall colour, but I might just look at tweaking the mid tones so you have a bit more tonal contrast within the subject, it just creates a bit more 'depth'. The blacks look a little thin, especially in the mouth, if you have used H/S naughty step for you but this can be easily resolved. I like the framing and ratio of space to subject.

If it was me, i would loose the dark 'shrub/bush' in the BKG and flip it L to R, but that's me.

Great story telling.

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Gabriela,
first a great story around the image , with each and every image you post here you have a great story ,at least a very emotional one, both fits together nicely, are you a writer somehow?
Regarding the image looks really good for High Iso , but would knock back the noise in the BG likewise the dark blob on RHS as viewed.Very nice colored and clear eyes , good job .
Agree with Steve about the mid tones for more tonal depth .Good detail and sharpness /colors looking good to me.The head angle also works nicely.

Well done , camp master female, LOL.
Your camp boy

[Marc Mol]

Agree on the above comments and overall a pleasing portrait & BG, I'm wondering if you did use any NR on the BG?
It could certainly stand up to some selective NR here, and would take this up another notch.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Good evening Friends,

It is 11:49 pm and the end of an exciting evening spent in the company of a dear friend who does exceptional video work. Patrick was kin to see our recordings from the last Kalahari trip, myself and Andre happy to share with him some of our most special sightings. Andre cooked the most delightful supper tonight, followed by a discussion about the chemistry of our passions and our endless love for nature. I was just about to switch off the computers and go to sleep when I saw your comments...so here it goes:


I am deeply grateful for your interest and help with this image and shall try to reply to your questions. Let me begin by saying that I did not do any work at all on the BG because I wanted to share with you my experience with high ISO on my Nikon D3S. Yes, this image is bad for printing, but I shall try some NR to make it more "palatable" for the viewer; I will sort out the BG and repost. Same goes with the brownish "lump" at the top on the right side of the image - I might clone it out or paint over it with soft light.
Steve, I already flipped this the other way around and it looked good, my only question to you is: how did you know I used H/S? Yes it was lazy processing and it only took me a few minutes to work on this image, these days I take secret pleasure from doing a tweak or two and voila! image ready, not always up to your standards I know, but I just do not always have the time to do a mask for this and a mask for that; besides, I often do too much and end up with an over processed, over-the-top version of what I actually saw (like the mouse image?).

This is full frame (I tried to frame correctly when I shot, thank you Steve , I did remember what you said in your last email before we went away), and Rachel, I would have loved to use flash if only I had the time to set it up, I was busy doing a video of the female playing with her young at the time this male came into view, all I could do is drop the videocamera and quickly pop the other camera on the bean bag. This year it has been a little frustrating, we recently sold the Landrover and bought a Toyota Fortuner, thinking we'll have more leg space and a tad more comfort. All was well until we realised that our camera supports were too high when mounted on the windows of the new vehicle, I had to go without my Wemberley gimbal and my famous "Russian style, rough-but-oh-so-solid" support, custom made by local guys...

Andreas, I have a degree in English Literature-Creative Writing and I enjoy every opportunity to add some context to my images. My passion for photography came rather late in life and sadly I can never make a living out of it, although I would love to. We work from Monday to Saturday and pharmacy work is demanding, one cannot just close the shop and go places. But we are fortunate to live in Big 5 territory and every sunny Sunday finds us exploring a nearby dam or a game reserve. There's no place like the Kalahari, and yes we are in dire need of a camp boy, so I hope you're busy packing for October?

Warmest regards and wishing you a great week-end,

Camp Master Female

[Morkel Erasmus]

Looking good Gabriela! Mean expression, and high ISO handled well (would do the NR on the BG though).
Also love your stories, takes me right back to the Kgalagadi!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Good evening Morkel,

Thanks for viewing and comments, and sorry to reply a bit late, been away for the week-end.

Sometimes my images are not as good as I would like them to be, but then I compensate with a little story, not sure what I enjoy more-writing or photography, I do not master any of the above but I derive a great deal of pleasure from doing both at the same time

Have a wonderful week!

Warmest regards,