I like the angle of this shot. The wind blown mane accentuates the looks. The catchlight in the right eye looks good. I will experiment cropping a little bit from the right. Overall, I like this a lot.
This is really great looking. Why? The BG and FG habitat is soft muted tones, nicely OOF and in keeping with the blessed out look of the lion. And the lion's expression and head position just feels so relaxing to me. Cropping would work but I don't know if it would make it better. Well done. Only thing I might suggest is a touch of selective sharpening of the head.
This is a lovely image Ken. Love that look and the soft colors. Agreed a tad of selective sharpening to the head and a tad crop off the right might boost the image further but has enormous appeal irrespective.
Great image for all of the reasons noted above, Ken. I love the head angle that shows off his muzzle and chin so well without being blocked by the foreground.
Thanks to everybody for their comments, I must confess that I really like the muted colours that you can sometimes get. The lack of sharpness in the head is intentional, but I will look at sharpening it a little further. The one thing that is unfortunately not overly apparent in this shot is that this is a real Kalahari Lion and has a wonderful black mane. This Lion and his brother are famous for their "mock" charges but unfortunately we did not get one, next time?
Super image Ken, I like the grass and expression on the males face...What is Hwange like these days, I have not been for 10 years now and am dying to get back...info please