Lion Cub

[Rachel Hollander]

Taken in the Timbavati Game Reserve, South Africa.

Canon 50D
100-400 @ 400mm
1/200
f5.6
ISO 400
HH from safari vehicle, no crop (wish I had a little more room on top), contrast boost and sharpened

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Robert Amoruso]

Rachel,

Good closeup view and nice expression.

Sharpness does look off to me however.

[Steve Kaluski]

I think your eye is getting more in tune with cropping & composition and good to see some self critic which IMHO is a healthy thing and would like to see more of. Would agree with Robert about the focus/sharpness, however I feel it is also a tad saturated and a fraction too much black, choking some of the fine detail within the image.

If you had more space above, then cropping some space from the rhs would probably make the comp. I am sure all this will be stored for the future. :)

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Robert and Steve. The focus spot was right above the left eye but unfortunately I didn't have enough shutter speed. This was very early on the morning drive because they were at the water hole right behind King's Camp. I should have upped the ISO. I did play with the comp and crop but any crop made the lack of sharpness more apparent. Steve -I didn't do anything as far as saturation but will take a look at reducing it and at the blacks.

Thanks,
Rachel

[Marc Mol]

I do like the expression here Rachel.
The only other thing I could mention would be to selectively lightly Gaussian blur the foliage in right FG.
TFS

[Ken Watkins]

Rachel,

This is a nice pose , so I thought I would "give it a go"

What do you think?

[Stu Bowie]

Rachel, Good looking cub, with a good attentive stare. In situations like this using the 100-400, I always use the minimum distance setting. That could be why this appears a little soft.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Marc, Ken and Stuart. Ken - the repost looks good. Thanks for the effort.

Stuart- I'll try that tip next time.

Thanks,
Rachel

[Harshad Barve]

great advise above but cuteness alert all over
TFS