Soft Toy in a Tree... This is for you, Steve:)

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Everyone,

My friends and I had this lovely sighting one Sunday afternoon during a game drive. Having taken a number of frames using various cameras and lenses I could not help but grab a quick snapshot with my cellphone as well, which I shared with Steve. The title of my message was "Mother of little cubs", to which Steve immediately replied: " It's a soft toy in a tree" Was so amused by his words that I could not stop laughing, and even today as I looked again at those images I realised how appropriate (and funny) his reply was.

By the way, this lioness is the proud mother of those two little cubs I shared with you recently. As you can see she had a truly copious meal before she climbed up there to enjoy the afternoon sun. Well, two meals, to be correct... that Sunday she had a warthog for lunch and the previous day an adult wildebeest was on the menu. I guess this explains the belly index and her need for a more comfortable seat...

I have various images from this sighting, unfortunately cannot share them all at once Bear in mind it is winter here, the light is really sweet at about 16:30 and thereafter fades rather quickly. This is one of the first frames I took in sweet light, a bit of a heavy crop as I wanted to eliminate a number of tree branches and get closer to my subject. So yes a little tight at the top, I do have others you might find more aesthetically pleasing.

Nikon D5
Nikon 500 F4
ISO 1000
F7.1
SS 1/2000s
EV +0.3

Thank you so much for taking the time to view as well as for your comments and suggestions on my previous images - I really appreciate it

Kind regards,