Lion under tree - Mana Pools

[Douglas Bolt]

Canon 5DM3, Canon f5.6 400@f5.6, 1/160s, ISO 500, HH on foot. PP: Bridge & CC. This was the first big animal I was able to photograph while on foot. Pretty exciting start that was followed by many more exciting experiences in Mana Pools.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Douglas, you have composed this well, nice placement of the lion and good shooting angle. I would like just a little more room below, but otherwise a superb image.

[Carl Walker]

Hi Douglas - Yes it is a very special place. I like the framing within the frame too. I see there is a lot of warmth in your images. Was this a largish crop at all. More interested in the distance to subject here. Love the pastel type colours. TFS

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Douglas , nice low POV and a good placement of the subject in the frame .I like the branches filling the sky BKG , giving the lion shelter .
Have not been there ever , but the colors do look a bit off to me , specially the yellows and the blues .
Iq is not that good for 5D MK III shot , maybe a different SS and higher ISO would have helped with a sharper result in the end .Or is tis a large crop as Carl already asked ?
Look for noise in the foliage of ULC .
Besides the technical issue i really like the image from the comp POV .

TFS Andreas

[Douglas Bolt]

Carl,

I know I've seen the distance value listed in some of the EXIF data, but I don't find it now. Recall that this was my first sighting on foot, hence the distance was more than probably necessary, but about as close as I felt comfortable (of course, Kevin with the big gun provided most of my confidence). The crop was 3600x2400 from a 5DM3, so pretty big. I use Neutral the Camera Calibration tab of Bridge. That seems to give the least warm tones. I usually select Auto for color in White Balance and then tweak it a bit from there.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Douglas - I too really like the comp and the inclusion of some of the habitat. You've gotten excellent suggestions and comments above. The lion's face looks a bit soft to me and like there was some movement which I would not be surprised given the slow ss, that you were handholding and that this was your first lion sighting on foot. I imagine it would take a bit of effort to slow your own heartbeat. There's also a slight halo around the lion's head.

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Canuel]

With the exception of the halo that I'm not really picking up on, Rachel's thought could be mine. I imagine I would have difficulty not trembling from the excitement of finding something like this to photograph while out hiking.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Douglas, I can only echo Andreas comments which also ties in with the previous posts feedback re colour. The Auto WB in PS is not great/ideal and often misleading, rarely does it achieve the correct values this is why you have the eyedropper & the Temp slider. As this is a crop, then a hint more FG would be better, it's a bit tight at the foot of the image, but I do like the offset position of the subject.

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

This was a special sighting, Douglas. I agree the colours could use a slight tweak as suggested.
The light was very low here from my recollection, so I too was using a slow-ish SS to reduce the ISO (I think we all were, LOL). I'm sure you got some sharper ones in the sequence of the lions, would be nice to see them too. The face here can take some more sharpening methinks. Kevin's gun was indeed comforting