by Jerry Austin
My first foray into wildlife photography was with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F717 zoom camera. This is the camera I took on my trip to Africa many years ago to visist and old friend that had taken up residency on Mt Kilamanjaro (see recent POP post). I bought the Sony as an all around camera and used it on a week long safri through northern Tanzania. Not the best camera for a photographic safari, but I was inexperienced and I did the best I could. This image was taken in the Serengeti, and was the first lion that I saw. This young male, and several other pride members, were sunning themselves on a small hill right next to the trail. When we stopped, I stood up through the roof of the land rover and found myself at eye level with this guy and his friends. They were very close and I still recall the excitement and nervousness.
At the time, I did not have professional quality equipment. The camera output was JPEGs. The image broke a few compositional rules, but I think it turned out pretty well. The camera output was JPEGs. I tweaked the JPEG image in Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro 2. Comments and critiques welcome.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F717
f6.3
1/500s
Focal Length 48.5mm
ISO 100
Comments
6 commentsHere's the color version.
Well, Jerry, this might have been a first try, but it caught my eye immediately as I saw it in the gallery. I like both the b/w version and the color version, but maybe the b/w a little more. Some people might say that it needs some more contrast, but I really like the softness of the black and whites. I think it adds to the feeling of the image.
Jerry, I think this is a great result for "early days" effort. The B&W conversion looks fine to my eye, but overall I prefer the color. The only change one could wish for might be to have more space, above and left.
Wow you were close Jerry, I remember the first time I was very close to a male lion in Etosha and it's a hair raising experience. Excellent portrait, I don't see any broken rules here, the comp seems classic for a close up. I prefer the color version. For some reason the one blade of grass on the right below his mane which sticks straight up really catches my eye, I would consider cloning it out.
Jerry,
I think this is good given the equipment used , my first digital camera was used solely in JPEG as back then the largest card was 1MB ( IBM Micro drive) and very expensive.
I prefer the B & W but think it would be better a little darker.
t never ceases to amaze me how close we get to these animals, and generally they are totally disinterested, thank goodness
Jerry: proof postivie that it "ain't the car, it's the driver". Both are nicely done, but my preference is for the color version. The b/w looks a bit flat to me. Richard