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Biggest scare of his life

This is another fantastic moment from my trip to South Luangwa. There is a whole sequence of pictures. One late afternoon I and my guide drives down to a crossing through the river, and just when we get down in the river bed this big male lion steps out. He slowly walks by us and down to this water pool. There he lies down and looks around. Then a puku on the other side of the river sees him and starts warning. Another puku on our side of the river answers the warning, but have no clue as to where the danger is. Then he starts slowly and very carefully walking down to the water, where our big lion is. The lion lays down his big head, lying flat on the ground. Obviously aware of the Puku. The Puku gets closer and closer. Stops 3 meter away from him, looks at the lion, sees nothing threathing and starts lowering his head to the water to take a drink. Then the lion raises his head just so little. The puku explodes, lands in the water and explodes again. This is the moment of this picture. And then he makes a couple of jumps away. There he stops, still just 10 meters away, and looks back. They stay so for about a minute or so absolutely still (a long time), before the lion raises his head full way up. Then the Puku finally realizes what it is and races away. I and my guide laugh out loud. One lucky Puku got the scare of his life :)
Nikon D4
Nikon 600 mm
f8 | 1/500 SS | ISO-500
Cropped slightly, adjusted curves, a filter (exp -0,5) over the trees and selectively sharpened.
If you want the whole story, I´m writing a trip report at safari talk : http://safaritalk.net/topic/13537-tw...s-of-leopards/
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Lifetime Member
Hi Gregor - great story but unfortunately it looks like the image was overexposed and is still a bit bright, with the highlights lacking detail in areas (like the splash). I wish the lion was also in focus and that the puku wasn't angled away from you. Also the colors of the trees and bushes in the bg look off, both too saturated and with a cyan/blue cast. Sorry, just my thoughts and others may disagree. It may be worth it to try processing this one again if you can recover more detail. Do you have others from the sequence in which the exposure might have been better and both animals in focus?
TFS and Happy New Year,
Rachel
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BPN Viewer
Neat story and I can imagine it was interesting to observe. I probably would've missed the photo while watching the action. The photo does go well with the story and I can see it being a nice part of an illustrated article. I like the capture of the puku springing from the water.
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BPN Member
Hi Gregor, very nice story indeed. Rachel already points out what should be done in the image.
Wish you a great new year
Ciao Anette
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BPN Member
Hi Gregor , story is nice and interesting . I will just echo Rachel`s comment in which i agree and it was my initial thought when i looked at it .
Have a good 2015
TFS Andreas
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Lifetime Member
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Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
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Wonderful story-telling image with lots of interest. Marc has shown the way with his RP and I agree with Rachel's critique. None the less, a nice image indeed.
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BPN Member
Great story/sighting and agree with the crits already given. The moment was nicely framed with the head up and the scrambling puku.
Marc's RP goes in the right direction - pretty sure there's a lot that can be recovered from RAW...
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I like the image as a story telling image and I think Rachel and others have nailed it on the head in terms of Crit.
Great moment though