I spent this entire week-end looking through recent posts in Wildlife and was delighted to find so many interesting images!
I also went through my recent Kalahari folders and I hope to share with you some interesting moments over the next few weeks. I might have already mentioned to some of you that the place was more hostile than ever in terms of weather and we had to cope with high temperatures and harsh lighting conditions. Our itinerary included Rooiputs and Polentswa on the Botswana side of the Park, and Nossob and Mata Mata on the South African side. We had a number of lion sightings but also cheetah with cubs on a kill, brown hyena on a carcass and spotted hyena, and not to forget the mischievous and very cunning Blackjacked Jackal...
I have already uploaded a few images of a recent and quite memorable sighting in our new forum entitled " Story Sequences", to demonstrate the way in which Blackjacked Jackals hunt when stealing from other predators is not possible. Busy now working on a few frames of springbok running, in the meantime I would like you to have a look at this lioness - for some reason I decided to allow for this contrasty look, I did remove some of the yellows and orange but did not lift the shadows...
I really did not want to lose what a saw at the time, and the impression this powerful lioness made on me - shadowed by her offspring, she was walking away from the water just as the sun rose above the red dunes at 6:30 in the morning.
Let me know of your likes and dislikes, also if you can think of any way to improve this image. I did have a tamer version of this but discarded it, I wanted to retain both the warmth and the dark shadows - an unusual thing for me to do, given that I always seek to reveal as much detail as possible when it comes to facial features.
Techs:
Nikon D4
Nikon 500mm F4
ISO 800
F5.6
1/3200s
NB. The green on the muzzle and jaw is algae from the water she drank at the waterhole.
Wishing you all a great week ahead,
Last edited by Gabriela Plesea; 03-01-2015 at 03:36 PM.
Hi Gabriela - I too like it as is. The comp works well with the powerful front leg as the edge and the hint of the mirrored youngster in the bg. Excellent details and sharpness. No reason to lift the shadows IMO.
Lovely light and tones. Amazing texture and details. Not sure if more DOF like F9-f10 would have been more ideal to see more detail in the lioness in the BG or if it would have been more of a distraction. I love looking at your work.
Lovely image here Gabriela, wonderful lighting and the overall quality are first rate here, however it's the BG symmetry of the cub that takes this above the normal portrait,
Thank you all from the heart, such generous comments and I am so grateful for your feedback! I think I must show you her cubs, if only to repay you for taking the time to view this image Working on it, back soon:)
The balance and mirroring between the pair make this a real 'wow' shot. The details on the single lion alone are spot on, but adding the second really make this something a bit special for me.
I am so happy you find this pleasing to the eye, and I cannot wait to share more with you! Thank you from the heart for your kind comments, very encouraging:)