Moments after

[Jay Shah]

I was lucky to be in Masai Mara to witness many mating sessions. Something that seems strange to us humans is: lioness snarling at or trying to bite the lion just as the act is over. But it was interesting to see that lioness in this case rolled over and looking generally happy! Which makes me wonder, do lions have varying experiences from great to so-so as humans do?!

Nikon D850 600 f4
1/2500 f8 ISO 1400

Many thanks for comments on previous post. Please keep them coming.

[Marc Mol]

Nice lighting and love the poignant pose here Jay. Not too keen on the road intersecting the male's head.

Something that seems strange to us humans is: lioness snarling at or trying to bite the lion just as the act is over.

The male lion has a backward pointed barb on the end of his penis, (necessary to stimulate the female to ovulate) which will often be painful to both when dismounting, hence the snarling/biting.

Which makes me wonder, do lions have varying experiences from great to so-so as humans do?!

Can vary greatly of course,

*depending on the number of days into the mating period, (granted they mate every 15/20mins or so for up to 5 days), hence towards the end it can get very..........shall we say automated.
*the age and experience of the pair, plus remember it's always the female that initiates the mating and calls all the shots.

I've also seen 2 females competing for one male at the same time and the male will switch from one to the other.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Jay -- Nice moment and light.

Again the processing is letting this image down. It looks strong on contrast and the whites on the chest looks blown out. Quite a lot of noise here but i dont how good the D850 is with high iso. The intersecting road is a bit unfortunate. A nice moment nonetheless and nice info by Marc on the same.

TFS !

[Jay Shah]

Hi Marc, that is all very interesting. TFS.

[Jay Shah]

Hi Haseeb,

Can't find faults with D850. It is a fantastic equipment. May be I got sloppy. Will revisit. Thanks.

[Basil Dardagan]

Its a lovely moment however I agree that the image could be better processed. look like it could be straightened imo

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Jay,

You have captured a lovely behavioural scene here, with the male and female resting and relaxed after mating. Or rather, in between mating:) I like that her eyes are visible and she is slightly turned towards the camera, a pity though about the road and I guess the viewers will find its presence rather distracting.

I do not see a great deal of noise here, instead wondering if it was a large crop that affected the IQ of the image. The D850 can take relatively high ISO, do not think 1400 should be an issue.

Whites are indeed a bit hot and you can tame them a little in LR ( if this software is part of your workflow). Should you like more specific feedback from the members it would really help if you described your processing steps in your intro

Masai Mara must have been an awesome experience - kindly share some more images with us...

Kind regards,

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Jay - Nice low pov which makes me think that you were likely some distance away. If so, not sure you needed f8 and could have probably gone to f5.6 and dropped the ISO. Agree about the whites, the road and the pp.

TFS,
Rachel

[Jay Shah]

Hello Gabriela, I agree with you on all counts -- IQ may not be great due to too agressive crop, D850 can handle much higher ISOs. Rachel, yes I was shooting with 600 mm and fair distance away. I could have done with wider aperture, but I wanted to be sure both subjects remain in focus. Even at f8, I think lion is a bit out of focus.
Many thanks to Basil and both of you for comments.

I have redone the image. What do you all think of this edit?

[Jay Shah]

I am only able to see part of the image. Are you able to see the complete image?

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Jay,

Thank you, I see the entire image. Unfortunately the WB does not look right in the RP. Lions are too orange in colour. The blur - or vignette - is quite obvious.

There are things one cannot quite fix without heavy manipulation, such is the road in this image. Heavy manipulation shows. Blurring, cloning, vignettes, all have their place if one's ethics permit but should be very subtle and minimal. Best if one pays attention in the field and sees not just the subjects but the surrounding environment and all elements in it. Sometimes there's a tree just behind the subject, or twigs / grasses right in front of its face, but we are often so taken with the subject that we forget to see the scene overall. A well composed image draws attention to the subject/s and has little or no distracting elements in it, in this case the road is intersecting the head of the male lion -you could have avoided that by shooting from a different angle.

Kind regards,