It's a small world, but just by chance whist out on one of our early morning game drives, we heard Dumay (BPN member and Wildlife Ranger for one of the Lodges) requesting to join our sighting. He had no idea who he was joining, but some good banter was exchanged between the two vehicles, so the images of the Lion & Lioness are now known as Dumay's lions. He subsequently joined us on another kill sighting a few days later.
The light was just on the turn and starting to get harsh, but these two lions just lay there and posed, as lions do. The location wasn't that interesting so really head & portrait shots were for me, the order of the day. This lioness turned into the light and like us, squinted as she gazed into the distance, but you do have some visible eye. I felt the bottom of the image was lacking, so just blew in some colour to see if it added anything, not something I normally do, so we will see hopefully some thoughts. Removing the grass stalks isn't difficult, but it can look sparse without them IMHO.
Steve
Subject: Lioness surveying (Panthera leo)
Location: SA
Camera: Canon 1DX
Lens: 500f/4 HH
Exposure: 1/500s at f/8 ISO400
Original format: Landscape (almost FF)
Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.
Hi Steve , good overall tight portrait with shoulder look .Almost monochrome look in color , but looks ok to me . If it was mine i would try to separate the yellows in them selves in LAB , but this is just me and not you .
You usual IQ combined with your PP work is great. Only thing that disturbs me is the artificial FG , for me not working at all . Looks to sterile for my liking.
But i have a suggestion what i would try , i would copy the top OOF BKG , flip it and do the same with it what you have done with your color painting.
Hi Steve, pity about the light, but there wasn't much you could do there. The image is sharp as your usual IQ. I like the part of the OOF FG where the leg began to disappear. May be taking off a sliver at the bottom would make it more natural. Can't wait to see more. Loi
Hi Steve - I've looked a couple of times at this and have decided that I'm not a fan of the added color to the bottom. These lions were quite relaxed which allowed us to spend a decent amount of time, especially after we did the hard part of finding the male. However, they did not pick a very interesting place to stop and soak up the sun to warm in the cold morning air. Sharpness and detail are there. I like the profile but she would not like that you are showing her bad side with the squashed ear. It was fun spotting Dumay in the wild.
Really nice colours and textures Steve! I like the OOF grass around the female as well as the low shooting angle. The Floppy ear adds to the character of the female…. Hope you got some great shots at our side of the world in SA…Chat soon.
All it took was a mere glance at this lioness and the thought that followed was " I would not mess with Dumay's girl". While most images I have seen so far capture a degree of "softness" when it comes to this species, usually making the subject look rather "loveable", this looks to me like one impressive, mean, not-to-be-messed-with lioness. Great capture, the half-closed eye and the damaged ear, that serious gaze, those features combined make the subject look like an unforgiving and battle scarred queen of the wild.
Steve, the grass stalks should stay IMHO, also "blowing in " some colour does work for my arty soul although not quite sure why it was necessary (I would love to see the original image some day, just to compare).
I really like that your images carry your own personal style, meaning they contain a lot of expression and consequently cause some emotional response from the viewer. My thoughts right now? I so wish I was there to see this with my own eyes...
Hey Dumay, it really was great to see you in person, just wished we could have had some 'real' time together and to have had the opportunity to expand on many previous topics. I trust you eventually get the kit you have been long awaiting.
Regarding the ear, up or down it doesn't worry me and in fact being down is not always shown, perhaps it's because they are alert rather than relaxed (?), but it appears certainly on this trip many species have floppy ears, as you know Rachel, but guess I took them.
Gabriela this is from LR without any PS work, I just felt I wanted to try something with this image, as the image itself is not going to rock any boats, but occasionally adding something, or trying something new can work, or enhance, dipping your toe in the water is good. I haven't even started to edit the images taken, but I will try to push things here and there, whether it's in PP or in cropping, that is the beauty of Digital, we take the shot, but then we have our own chance of creating/portraying that image.