Picture from Masai Mara in February 2014. The Talek river is just behind those bushes. This gloomy morning, for a moment the sun shined through and these lion brothers emerged out of the bushes for a couple of minutes. They are actually four, and I have some nice pictures of them all cuddling just moments later. Maybe a later post. I guess this one goes in the Theme as it is a triple animal picture
Nikon D800
Nikon 70-200 @ 200 mm
f8 | 1/640 SS | ISO-1600
Selectively sharpened the object and adjusted some levels in LR5
Cropped to 60% of original picture.
Great shot of the boys. There's a lot to like here. It's nice how the strong color of the immediate BG sets off the lions and then progressively fades away.
Hi Gregor - It certainly does fit the theme. I like how they're all huddled together. I do find the bg competing with the lions and would consider cropping down from the top to more of pano to bring the attention to the lions.
This is a terrific image with the three close together and with good eye contact on all of them. I like the surroundings and would agree reg Rachel's crop option. Great sighting for sure. Can't wait to see all 4 together!
This image really portrays the close bond lion bros share, just look at the way the 3 squeeze together, very nice Gregor.
Agree on cropping, but just the top sky line for me.
Nice moment captured between them, Gregor, and I like the layering of colours from tawny to green to misty in the BG.
I am not a fan of the placement in the frame, I feel the space on their right is not adding much to the photo - do you have any with them more towards the RHS rule-of-thirds powerpoint?
Hi Gregor, If you have to, as this is a crop, I might just move the whole crop down loosing the sky, but gaining a tad more below, although agree with morel, the space to the right isn't really working. I like the way the heads are jostling for position.
This is a great interaction, but the crop is a little awkward. I understand why you want to keep the sky, but to make the whole image work, I would lose it and try to get the lions more in the centre/right of the frame. It would mean a hefty crop, but it's not visually pleasing for me at the moment, even if all elements within it are.
Ed
Hi everyone and thanks for all your comments and critique.
Here is full frame picture. I adjusted yellow color in the lions fur, after this being discussed in Andreas lion picture "Coalition".
I tried to crop according to how I interpret your suggestions. But then I canīt find a composition I think is better, and cropping out a seizable amount more influence IQ badly. Besides, shooting this, my thought there and then was to include landscape (animalscape).
Iīm at loss here. I would really appreciate any working composition/crop suggestions.
Hi Gregor, I think if you have a single subject (perhaps much smaller) in a more dramatic, barren, or vast landscape like Morkel has done with Wildebeests, or Peter Delaney with elephants for example work well as animalscapes producing impact & scale, here maybe having three together, looking to camera in a busy environment may not work as well???? Something like this may have been better, with more impact if a longer lens was used and so the Lions became more of a feature, for me they are a little lost within frame. Certainly, as you say, heavy cropping is not ideal, you may be able to produce an image that looks good at this size, but to print at a larger size may/would begin to show the pitfalls, but just my take.
Not ideal due to IQ, but perhaps another option for cropping?
But I have to conclude, that in the end composition is a bit awkward trying to do it landscape, cropping down to a close-up it loose IQ. So I guess bad choice from beginning. In hindsight, I think i should have gone closer (600 mm instead of 200 mm lens) or maybe gone landscape much more (24 mm?).