Lionscape

I always like going for a wider perspective on animals if the scene and light conditions allow.

I think having a decent grasp of the principles of landscape photography helps one in cases like these. I am far from the level of landscape photography displayed by most here on the Landscape gallery of NPN, but I do dabble in it a lot and occasionally get it right - but most of all I have learned a lot about the principles of composition, the fall of light and the way mood is captured by dabbling in landscape photography.

On this occasion, we were in the Madikwe Game Reserve and had headed out well before dawn to a section called the "Madikwe Plains" in order to capture some sunrise landscape images. As we about to set up our tripods next to the vehicle, my wife (who was still sitting on the game viewer wrapped in a cozy blanket as it was a chilly winter's morning) shouted and pointed up the road. Not 100m from us was a large male lion! We had found the perfect "foreground anchor" for our landscape shots. The clouds and morning light played along nicely, and the flat terrain enabled the light to envelop the lion while only gently kissing the hills at the back.

I have a version where I blended 2 exposures to achieve this result, but this one was entered into some competitions and therefore I worked from one exposure here. We were obviously sitting on the game viewer now and, not owning a monopod at the time, I had to lower my camera down the side of the vehicle to get a lower angle. I composed and focused using "live view". I didn't want to go too low in any case as I wanted to show the depth of the "lie of the land" and the clouds too.

You will need to click on the larger file to appreciate this one...though it works better printed wide and large on a wall!

Techs:
Canon 7D with 10-22mm USM @ 22mm
f4.5 @ 1/50 SS @ ISO-400
Cropped from bottom and LHS to eliminate the road.