Chitabe Lion at First Light

[Grant Atkinson]

Canon 40D, Canon 300f.28 is, handheld. S/S 1/1600 at f2.8, -0.33 exp comp, iso 400. Location Chitabe camp, Okavango, Botswana. 07h20, sun had just come up. Moments before taking the shot, the lion had been in the shadow, and I had been shooting wide open, hence when he looked up in this sunlit area, I was still on the wide-open aperture setting. Given more time I would probably have gone to f4 or f5.6. The red in the lions colour comes from the early Botswana sun in the dry season, as the very early light gets coloured by dust and haze.
Cropped from 10 to 8mp, and cloned out one in focus piece of grass on lhs of image. Also lightened side of lions face in ACR using adjustment brush. PP in ACR6 and CS5
All c and c welcome
Cheers
Grant

[Ofer Levy]

Awesome portrait!

[Grant Atkinson]

thanks Ofer, I got lucky when he looked at me right in the light...about a second later he turned and kept on walking...thanks for commenting and looking
cheers
Grant

[RakeshDhareshwar]

One heck of a portrait !! The light , the eye contact , exposure all spot on !!

[Robert Amoruso]

Looks like you still had good enough depth of field to create just what you were looking for. Great light makes for a handsome looking portrait. Thanks for the details on the reason for the light color Grant.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Great portrait in killer light...great image Grant!

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Rakesh, Robert and Dumay. Robert I was fortunate that at the distance i was shooting from, that f2.8 worked out fine, and the fixed lens is still pretty sharp even at f2.8. Sometimes there is payback for lugging that heavy thing around
Thanks for commenting
cheers
Grant

[Rachel Hollander]

Grant - Beautiful portrait in beautiful light with nice colors and pose. One slight nit, there's an artifact or something (light horizontal line) just to the left of the whiskers in the bg that I would clone out. Well done!

TFS,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Another cracking image Grant, and appreciate the additional text explaining the situation. Would agree with Rachel about the 'whisker' on the LHS.

Where was the MK4?

TFS
Steve

[BenBotha]

The king-well exposed, sharp and a regal subject-boy how I miss Botswana and the bush.

Ben

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks for commenting Steve, Rachel and Ben. Good eye Rachel, I just checked on the raw shot and it is a piece of grass that appears to be stuck to his fur...I will remove it.
Steve, this was a couple years back, pre Mk4 days
Thanks for looking
cheers
Grant

[Grant Atkinson]

Here is the repost, minus offending grass

[Morkel Erasmus]

super portrait as mentioned Grant! love the light and pose...

[Grace Scalzo]

Lovely. Memorable photograph.

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Morkel and Grace, the male in question is quite a handsome specimen, which makes all the difference

[Marc Mol]

Beautiful light on this fine regal pose here Grant, the overall colour looks spot on as well.
TFS

[Grant Atkinson]

thanks Mark, much appreciated

[Pieter de Waal]

Agree with all the above Grant, certainly a good looking specimen and you have used the light well. Also good work in PP in lightening the side of the face.

[Charles Glatzer]

Grant,

Wonderful portrait. I would tone down the muzzle a bit.

Best,

Chas