A female from the Nsefu pride commences her stalk on a pair of buffalo drinking.
Applying a small amount of USM has introduced some noise on the lion (granted @ ISO3200) but still showing good detail I feel.
I love the yellow sheen on the water from the setting sun here, giving me a nice reflection. Would have loved a head on shot of course.
D700 70-200VRII 1/800s f/4 ISO3200@ 200mm. Almost F/F. Nsefu sector on the Laungwa river, Sth Luangwa NP- Zambia late Oct 2011
I like the idea here and having a water background is awesome. But I feel for this image to work, I need the lion not to be walking away and for a lower POV.
I do realize she is stalking and someone familiar with the behavior will recognize that - but I still want her to be walking towards and not away from the camera.
A lower POV would make better use of the more attractive blue water and less of the brown water.
Marc - I agree with your self-critique about the noise and both your and Robert's point about the body angled away. The colors are nice. You might try cleaning up the some of the spots on the reflection.
Head on would've been cool, especially with the color transition in the water but this one works for me as posted. Haven't seen many lion pics with the lion completely surrounded by water.
I tend to agree with Robert here. I do like the setting and the reflection (which would be negated by a low angle), as I think that makes it an unusual lion shot...but of course in an ideal world your self-critique stands: I wish she was walking towards you.
Your images from Zambia are just flaming the fire for me to go there soon...
Great reflection and I like the paw up. I'm not so disturbed about the animal walking away. Sometimes it works leading you to wonder where it's off to and what it may see?????