Lion Cub

[Rachel Hollander]

One of the 4 cubs of Tsalala Pride at the moment the adults called the cubs and the cubs took off to the impala kill that the adults had just made. Taken at Londolozi in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa.

Canon 7D
300 II
1/1000
f5.6
ISO 400
Beanbag from safari vehicle, ff, luminosity mask, levels, curves, selective color adjustments, sharpened in CCPS.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

I like the 'about to take-off' pose with that raised paw, eyes in the direction where the parents are probably. Nice details, colour and sharpness.

[Mark Needham]

Lovely image, Rachel. Great pose captured and the eyes really pull me in. Great job handling the processing on this one. I might consider trimming a bit off the top, mainly because my eye keeps catching the "blob" in / behind the trees (is that another lion?). If you do crop from the top, you may need to also trim a bit on the bottom for balance.

[Jonathan Ashton]

It is a well caught image and very sharp-nicely detailed. For me it nearly works but not quite, it is as if we have to envisage what has captured his attention thus removing attention from the subject.

[Nancy Bell]

Considering the above comments, I agree with cropping away the top with the white/tan blobs. And just wondering aloud along the lines of Jonathans' comment, would a horizontal crop tell more of the story, by providing more space to follow the gaze? The cub is darling and capturing the moment with the uplifted paw & the beginning of the twist of the body and head was great timing!

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Rachel!

What a naughty little brat and I love him to bits! Well captured that focus and intent on his face, I can tell he is about to cause havoc in the "camp"!

Image well exposed and processed, I particularly like the pose and expression, thought about the horizontal crop mentioned by Nancy above but something tells me you were so close you could not afford to lose a millimetre...

Oh, and that paw in the air, ready to cause some damage...

I am back Rachel, happy to say I have fixed my corrupted files and busy to process again...

Chat soon, have a fabulous week-end,

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. A horizontal won't work with this one because I was shooting in portrait format while the cub was standing still and by happenstance captured the moment the cub took off. No more room on the left. We followed the cubs to the kill as well.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Andre Pretorius]

Love the moment and emotion captured!

The horizontal format would have worked better, but it is all in hindsight...

Nice PP on cub!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Rachel , cool pose captured !!
Overall nice tones and colors , as expected .BG is a bit busy taking away my eyes , only thing you could do is , from my POV . smoothing and/or lowering contrast .Worth a try .

TFS Andreas

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice light, pose and sense of motion in this one, Rachel!
With busy BG like this I like to do a trick with the clarity slider in LR - check out this post: http://photography.wild-eye.co.za/ma...slider-friend/

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, like the 'just about to set off' pose, but then I know where he was going. Think you could afford to loose some off the top without harm to the overall comp.

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Steve