Who's Stalking Whom?

Gallery: WildlifePosted December 12, 2010362 views4 comments

This is one of the 12 Lions that inhabit Addo NP in South Africa. Addo is the only park on our recent trip where we had a chance to see Lions and through a combination of being through the gate right at opening time and sheer luck managed to see a group of three within 20 minutes of entering the park our first day. The challenge with seeing Lions in Addo is that most of it is filled with dense brush. This was the dominant male of the group with a younger male and adult female rounding out the three. We were extra lucky to be 1/3 cars to see them that morning before they disappeared into brush.

Besides the excitement of seeing our first wild Lions without having to hire a guide, I kind of like this shot despite all the technical issues (backlit, OOF brush in the way, etc.) b/c it shows how close they can get to you in the thick underbrush of Addo and the high ISO settings possible with the newer Canon and Nikon DSLRs. The sun was just starting to come up so I still had the ISO set pretty high and only had time for this shot before he turned away. He was maybe 7-8 meters away from our Civic, close enough to make my wife (and me) a bit nervous. C&C are always greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking!

Canon EOS 7D
Canon 100-400 @ 100mm
ISO 1,600, F4.5, 1/1,250 sec

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on December 13, 2010 at 1:07 AM

This must have been an incredible experience to be this close. If you could have rolled the vehicle a couple of feet forward you might have exposed the left eye from behind the branch, but I know how challenging it is to juggle equipment, drive and keep an eye on the subject all at the same time. Interesting background story, thanks for providing it.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on December 13, 2010 at 12:36 PM

Hi Joe, I wasn't so lucky to see the lions in Addo, when I was there earlier this year, they certainly are not a common sighting there! A difficult shooting situation with him being behind the bushes, yet I agree this can be a very nice 'stalking' effect. IMO this is almost successful in that way; I really wish that twig was not obstructing its right eye here.If the bushes were more dense on the other hand and only one eye were visible I would argue the opposite. The large version looks indeed a bit noisy, but was is worse, also the focus seems to be off.

Sorry for being so harsh on you today, nothing personal, just how I feel about the image

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Sharp on December 13, 2010 at 10:07 PM

I think he is wondering what kind of flavor your offer..

Registered on December 9, 2007, 258 Posts, 9892 Comments

Comment posted by Joe James on December 18, 2010 at 12:55 PM

Thanks Vincent for the honest critique, that's the whole point of this site and I greatly appreciate all of the fantastic advice you have given me. Cheers!

Registered on November 20, 2009, 89 Posts, 808 Comments