Lions in the rain...

[Morkel Erasmus]

Taking a quick break from Kalahari cheetahs

On our Kruger trip in December 2009 we woke up one morning in Shingwedzi to light drizzling rain. Not being put off I told my wife we should drive out anyway as it might clear up and nobody else will drive out.

We took the Mphongolo loop between Shingwedzi and Punda - a gravel road that runs through arguably (next to Pafuri) the most beautiful stretch of riverine forest in the park. As we came round a bend, we found this pride of lions sprawled out in the road trying to avoid the wet foliage in the dense bush. It was still drizzling on-and-off.

We sat with them for nearly an hour, and they disappeared into the bush before the first care came by .

In a self-drive location like Kruger, the ultimate reward is finding a great sighting all on your own, and having it for yourself for a reasonable amount of time. We have been fortunate to have many such sightings recently.

Techs:
Nikon D300s with 200-400mm VR @ 360mm
f4.0 @ 1/125 SS @ ISO-500
fill flash fired
basically full frame, trimmed some edges

[Hilary Hann]

I like the poses on both lions as the back lion also has an interesting paw position which adds to the composition. It is good to see animals in the rain but it can be challenging. The road does detract somewhat from this and I'm not sure about the spare tail. Overall I like it.

[Harshad Barve]

Liked this lot Morkelbhai , lovely image of relaxed lions , I need to nail this species in 2011 ;)
TFS

[RakeshDhareshwar]

The lion seems very preoccupied . Nicely caught pose . I would clone off the spare tail .

[Steve Kaluski]

Works for me Morkel, like the low POW, colour and detail are spot on. They look very healthy & contented lionesses, obviously you were not on the menu it appears. :) Re the tail, that is up to you, slightly distracting but not a big deal, but would clone the stone on the edge of the image and the black one by the tail for me.

As an overall comment/observation re the image (and this also applies to Harshad too IMHO) the quality, standard, clarity, colour and overall quality is far better when shot with Nikon than with the 7D. Morkel compared to say your recent Cheetah, this is far stronger and streets ahead, therefore is it the camera or perhaps a processing issue?

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the comments guys...

interesting observation Steve...

herewith my honest views after using both systems:

This image should have better clarity and overall sharpness as it was shot with a lens that is streets ahead of the Canon lens I am using. In the RSA, the Canon 100-400mm sells for about R18,000 new whilst the Nikkor 200-400mm VR goes for more than R80,000. This is probably a good indication of the IQ you can expect from either lens. That being said I am very happy with my 100-400 and if I stay with Canon for a long time I will never sell this lens as I love the versatility of a zoom for wildlife photography.

I also think the light conditions were very different - the Kalahari light is very hard and the air is dry, whereas this shot was taken in gloomy rainy humid weather with diffused low light.

I find the Canon colour more vibrant and even more accurate than the Nikon sensors. The most of my processing on this lion shot was to correct the colour - I have found that most of my shots taken on 2 different trips with the Nikon system had a green and/or cyan cast to the images (I mostly use AWB unless I intentionally want to warm up colours in the shade etc). The images from my 7D sometimes have a slight magenta cast but the colour is much more accurate according to my memory of the scenes.

That being said, I would love to be able to get my hands on a D3s/200-400 combo any day, but I think to be fair for my own assessment I might need to test a prime Canon lens on my 7D to see the image quality there.

I am going to post many 7D images from my past 2 trips and still have many Nikon images from my previous 2 trips, so let's observe the results carefully as I normally have the same workflow. :)

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Morkel

Thanks for the feedback, although my feeling is the 'kit' does not need to be the 'State-of-the-Art' or the most expensive to get the best results. Personally it is the combination of getting it right in camera and processing.

Look forward to seeing more results, however I hope Alfred might also post some thought about this too, as I think he owns a 7D and has been on both sides of the fence re Brands.

Steve

[Harshad Barve]

As an overall comment/observation re the image (and this also applies to Harshad too IMHO) the quality, standard, clarity, colour and overall quality is far better when shot with Nikon than with the 7D.

I am done with Canon , Had blast of time and will be ordering Nikon 200-400 and D300s , This is my personal opinion , 200-400 is what I need as I will ne doing mammals for quite a some time

As far as PP is concerned Capture NX is one mighty fine S/W and really brings out all details of NEF files , was never comfortable with DPP and CR2 files of 7D , But all in all 7D is one fine body , it was me who could not handle it

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Morkel Great find and satisfying .... nothing like doing on your own !!! Love the image, second oof is just right !!

Regarding Canon/Nikon have been on both camps recently. When I switched to Nikon my first priority in lenses was getting a 200-400, been wanting for years but in short time was a big disappointment. The lens weighs seven pounds and was missing the 100-400 Image quality wise the Canon does not hold a back seat to the other. Seems better working with a 500/600 and having the 100-400 over the shoulder/close by if needed !!

Regarding color output form Nikon/Canon there is not much problem anymore, if you see a cast, have a preference etc just add the adjustment at the time of import with a pre-set in LR. The one color that reproduced different with Nikon was blue, I haven't worked out a pre-set but just might !!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the feedback and interesting discussion guys...

Harshadbhai I think the 200-400 will suit you like a glove.

another point I might add is that I use LR 2.6 to process 7D files as DPP is just very user-unfriendly IMHO, I have read somewhere that LR 3 is a lot better with 7D raw files - any comments?

[Steve Canuel]

Hi Morkel,
Good decision on the drive, the colors are nice and vibrant. I like the relaxed attitude of the lions and the road doesn't bother me. I'd remove the tail. Sort of takes the eye out of the pic to find who it belongs to for me.

[Rachel Hollander]

Morkel - Like this image very much. I too think the tail is slightly distracting but it is a personal choice. Interesting discussion about the 7D and the Nikons. I just picked up a 7D so will let you know if I see issues.

TFS,
Rachel

[nothsafoto]

Morkel,

Great pose here and the lighting is very good rather than harsh contrasty light. The tail and stones can be cloned out easily.

I shoot with the 7d and 100-400mm but mainly with prime 400mm and 500mm Canon. My boss shoots with a Nikon D300s and 200-400mm and he is not overly impressed with the lens when adding convertors (1.4x etc.). For a lens that expensive I was surprised at this inability to produce good images with TC's.

Both combos produce good images with slight colour variations and sharpening which can be corrected in post processing.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks guys...

I am done with excessive cloning like removing a tail or rock...so I'll leave this one as is...