On one morning our recent trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, we encountered this lion couple busy with the protracted business of mating (sometimes they carry on for 7 days).
In between bouts of copulating, they would lie around listlessly, building up strength for the next round :). They can get quite aggressive with each other during the act.
I captured this one a few moments before she allowed him again. Just loved the look he gave her, and the look she gave me. My aperture was on f5.6 and forgot to stop down a notch for this shot, but in the end I loved the effect of the king being slightly OOF, with his gaze fixed on his bride in 'wanton adoration', and she looking quite self-conscious.
This one will go straight into my canvas print portfolio.
Applied slight additional Gaussian blur to the BG since it was a bit busy. As posted it's about 90% of full frame, cropped out some branches top and right and rotated 1 degree CW.
Techs:
Canon 40D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 285mm
f5.6 @ 1/500 SS @ ISO-100
Last edited by Morkel Erasmus; 10-31-2009 at 04:43 AM.
I spent some more time on this image - here is an improved version with the BG blurred some more, the grass stalks in front of the lions removed and also the hair that was hanging over her eye...
Good interaction in this Morkel. Like the way she is listening to him and gauging the next move, with his intent look too. Her tongue tip showing a nice touch. Repost a big improvement. Well done bud.
Lovely re-post, Morkel, the female is tack sharp. I like the look on her face that you captured, to me, she seems to like you more than the lion that she's mating with, especially with her tongue out and all :-D. The male's expression is priceless !!!!
Courting the Beauty
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