This was the same lion cub I had posted a while back, munching on one of the impala bones from his mothers kill. All cute & loveliness, but a feisty little thing when it came to protecting his meal. The blood on the nose I think was from scrapping with his brothers & sisters earlier. Positioning himself in the shade helped keep him cool and reduce any strong highlights. His position did not last long after he heard the kill being taken down and the chance of a meal.
Steve
Subject: Lion cub (Panthera leo)
Location: SA
Camera: Canon 1DX
Lens: 200-400f/4 (560mm ext used) HH
Exposure: 1/800s at f/5.6 ISO400
Original format: Landscape, very slight crop.
Lovely composition Steve, I like the framing of the blades of grass with a clear shot of the Lion. That bloody nose adds to the image and the details and techs are very good as usual. You handled the strong light nicely.
Hi Steve - The uneven light was certainly annoying but you handled it well. The blood adds and I'll have to look to see which cub this is and if I see the blood in any of my images (I don't recall seeing it). The comp, pov and direct stare all work really well. There's a grittiness though to the image that we don't usually see in your images. Different processing?
Rachel, all is good, just got back and checked the file, thanks I found a cable out, but it has no effect, however I did also check & recalibrate jut in case albeit 126 hours still to go. File is good and have sent you a far bigger crop so you can see. Thanks.
Hi Steve, great eye contact, and before reading your intro, I knew that would been blood on the little guy. Great story, and I like the low perspective here, even though you would have been shooting from a vehicle. The cub positioned himself nicely between the grasses.
Nice one Steve, like the lightning and the the tones on the feisty one.
Cannot comment on color or grittiness cause i look mobile in JHB airport.
Be back soon !!!
Just witnessed a lion kill some hours ago in Pilanesberg on my way out of the park , sadly no images all happened behind that nice high and dense grass , all i saw was loads of dust , the call of death and then total quietness .
Back from lion land and I am glad to see another lovely lion image from you - I must admit I did not see that many lions on our trip although there's one special sighting that will stay on my mind for a very long time. I wanted to be the first to post an image of something we have witnessed (which is a male and female roaring in tandem while walking towards us) but due to some technical glitches I will have to post at a later stage.
Looking at this image my first thoughts were: correctly composed from the beginning and well exposed, the pose is lovely and there is nice eye contact. I like the point of view, makes the scene more intimate. I don't know about the grittiness, definitely none on the subject, in my opinion. I have some recent images taken in harsh light where the grass looks the same, silvery and shiny (dry because lack of rain) really not much one can do about it. For someone familiar with the African landscape, the environment as captured here tells something about the season / time of the year when the image was taken. This is sharp where it needs to be and the whole image has this natural, unaltered quality I have been aiming for lately...often not successfully:)
I love this, enjoyed viewing and hope to see more images from your trip in SA!
Hi Steve,
I like the contrast of shadow and light on this one. Looks mic sand natural. The bloody nose is a nice touch. It reminds me of a kid who's just lost a little tussle and is thinking about how it won't happen next time.
Looks may be deceiving...
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