I spent five days developing a conservation project in India and photographing the animals of the Gir Forest where I was setting this up. The project involves building well barricades around open pit wells that are dug by poor farmers in the region. Lions and other animals (and occasionally humans!) fall into the wells at night and are killed or seriously injured. Currently, I am in the process of forming a nonprofit to raise funds for building the barricades in association with my partner organization in India.
There are only about 350 lions left in the wild outside of Africa (the Asiatic is a sub-species) and many of them reside in the Gir Forest and the surrounding countryside. These are the lions of biblical fame and once ranged as far west as Greece. They are little known in the world now and need our help to survive. I'll be going back to India in a few weeks to do some more work on setting up the project and, of course, to do some photography.
One of the interesting about these lions is that they live in a dense forest, not open savanna. Because of this it is sometimes necessary to trek into the forest, very carefully :), to find them. I obtained a special permit to go looking for them, along with two experienced tracker/guards, because of my involvement with the conservation project. I came upon this female, nicely framed between the leaves of a Teak tree, while on one such walk. I didn't have much time to compose the shot because I was pretty darn nervous and anxious to move back.
I'm relatively new to nature photography and joined this forum on Artie's promise of gentle feedback.:) I do have much to learn so please teach me!
Thanks,
Steve
Mark III, 500mm + 1.4x, hand held, 1/000, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Hi Steve and welcome on BPN....We don't see photographs of Asiatic Lion that often. And the project you're working on sounds really good. Keep up the good work.
Regarding the photograph...I like how this is photographed through the vegetation.....the soft pastel colors really add to the image IMO. Composition wise I'd say that the head of the lion is a bit too centered in frame....therefore you lost space at the bottom. Next time....try to photograph with another focus-point selected on your camera...that way you'll still be able to follow your subject, while having a pleasing composition, without clipping the legs.....
IF you would have done all this, the lion would probably have been too big in frame....so you could easily have taken it without the 1.4 extender. IMHO most people use too much focal lenght to record their subject. Part of the image creating process is to carefully watch a scene, ask yourself what to include and what not.....and try to emphasize the parts that draw your attention. Hope this helps. But most important of all: Have fun out there!
For some one relatively new to "Wildlife" think this is truly stunning and echo Jaspers sentiments about the Pastel colouring, and l like the areas that are blurred out of focus.. l can't give advise on the technical aspects, like your self relatively new to wild life, and reading Jaspers advise also..!!
But love the way youve composed and seen the Shot.. has a Art content created by the softness of the blurr.. giving the Lion a presence/spirit.
Truly beautiful.. and good luck with the work in conservation of this beautiful Creature... Saw a BBC wild life Documentry on this very topic last year... !!
Truly think the composition is amazing..!
I like the feel a lot Steve Also agree with Jasper and the focal length I do think we tend to get much tighter than we should It is a delicate balance Sure wish you could have gone a little higher to lower the oof leafs up front Excellent feel to this image The soft colored bg contrasting with the tough lion !!!
Love the way the OOF FG vegetation frames the lion. I would crop this to a vertical behind the front shoulder to eliminate the tree and a bit in front of the lion.. Did you shoot this in the vertical by chance?
Asiatic Lion - Gir Forest, India
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