Two Young Kings

Gallery: WildlifePosted July 20, 2014182 views9 comments

Spent an hour or so with these 2 brothers on this particular afternoon at a remote waterhole in Etosha last year. This was taken just as the sun had dipped below the horizon. The stick was one that the front male was playing with.

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 500mm f4 VR-II
f5.6 | 1/200 SS | ISO-4000
Pretty much full frame, cropped a sliver off bottom to remove grasses protruding from the bottom and a sliver from the LHS for balance

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Thomas Haney on July 20, 2014 at 10:29 AM

Beautiful shot Morkel, I love the lighting of the brothers and the balance of the image.

Registered on April 7, 2013, 138 Posts, 537 Comments

Comment posted by Jagdeep Rajput on July 20, 2014 at 11:24 AM

Very nicely framed !
May prefer a touch more room at the bottom.
Jagdeep Rajput

Registered on April 29, 2008, 686 Posts, 2857 Comments

Comment posted by Balan Vinod on July 20, 2014 at 11:34 AM

Morkel. A very original image. Its a killer composition. Hats off.
Balan Vinod

Registered on March 20, 2006, 889 Posts, 2312 Comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on July 20, 2014 at 1:21 PM

Very nice Morkel. I really like the OOF lion in the background. more room at the bottom if you have it, but awesome either way.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Ingrid Vekemans on July 20, 2014 at 1:22 PM

Love the dof and uniformity of the pose...

Grt, Ingrid.

Registered on August 2, 2010, 138 Posts, 780 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on July 20, 2014 at 5:30 PM

That's quite a look that the front one is giving you. The gentleness of the colors and the soft focus on the 2nd brother looks really good. The stick is a neat touch.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on July 21, 2014 at 8:57 AM

Hi Morkel,

Nicely done. Love the overall colour palette and I think you nailed the DoF just about perfectly (wouldn't want the lion on the left more in or more out of focus). I understand the rationale of the sliver cropped off the bottom (to remove the grasses) but the trade-off is that it does feel just a tad tight on the bottom. One very minor nit: that object (branch?) in the upper right corner did catch/pull at my eye a little...

Cheers...

Brad

Registered on May 29, 2007, 431 Posts, 6061 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on July 26, 2014 at 10:23 PM

Hi Morkel! As I mentioned in a recent post, work-related issues have prevented my involvement in the forums here of late, but I never quit dropping by for a daily dose of "wow!"...and this one prompted just that from me when posted earlier this week (as so many of your wonderful African images have done).

Let's see...the light is exquisite, the textures on the lion in the foreground are veritably mesmerizing, the eyes are just GORGEOUS, the expressions of both lions are perhaps perfect, the stick is just cool, the juxtaposition flawless. 'Twould not have seemed this was possible through 500mm, yet here it is and it has haunted me since your posting.

Pre-Script: love the gradual darkening to all four corners as well. Not sure it qualifies as a vignette and if it was incidental it was "fortuitous circumstances" indeed!

Truly beautiful image, Morkel.

Registered on April 5, 2011, 223 Posts, 1193 Comments

Comment posted by Morkel Erasmus on July 28, 2014 at 12:00 PM

Thanks very much for your very kind comments, folks

Registered on March 22, 2011, 385 Posts, 2068 Comments