Snake in the Grass? + repost

Nice capture. Looks like the light was not totally in your favor, but you made the best of it. Perhaps lightening the lioness a bit would improve the image. Regardless, nice capture.

Jerry,

Thanks for the comment, the light was certainly not with me, I did some selective lightening, I do not think it would take much more but I will give it a go

Nicely done under what were tough conditions. As Jerry mentioned, a bit of lightening of the lioness might be in order. Richard

It sounds like the contrast between shade and surroundings is a hurdle. I, too, thought perhaps you could do selective lightening. Your choice of composition using rule of thirds works well.

OK thanks to all of the suggestions I have tried something else , is it any better? I think so

Hey Ken,

I prefer the first version - and the reason is that the contrast is what actually helps draw my eye. Shadows do occur in nature and there's still plenty of detail to look at on the lioness anyway. To me the repost looks unnatural and almost like it's been subjected to excessive flash-fill.

My bigger nit with the shot is the thin band of fray/blue at the top of the frame. It's obviously not a deal-breaker, but without it the image becomes that much simpler and - at least to me - that much more appealing. So if this were mine I'd shave that off - and I'd likely crop all-round proportionally to maintain the overall aspect ratio and keep the lion in approximately the same position in the frame.

Brad

Brad,
Sorry that you do not like the re-post, must confess it does not look like "fill flash" to me.