Lioness - on a mission

Gallery: WildlifePosted January 23, 2017271 views5 comments

Taken just before midday, light was bright, but not harsh, providing a very 'light & airy' image, with no real deep shadows, just a simple form, defining her physique. Some may fine the grass in front distracting, I quite like it, as it has an elegancy and I feel, in keeping with the tone of the capture. She had spotted some impala in the distant, so she decided to take the road her sister scooted around leaving the cubs behind in the tall grass, safe from any of the Hyenas & Wild Dogs. We then sped ahead and waited parallel to her and just waited.

Thanks to those who viewed or posted a comment on the previous thread.

Steve

Subject: Lioness (Panthera leo) stalking
Location: Botswana
Camera: Canon 1DX MKII
Lens: 200-400f/4 HH
Exposure: 1/1600s at f/7.1 ISO800
Original format: Landscape, minimal crop, almost FF
Processed via: LRCC & PSCC2017

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on January 23, 2017 at 10:23 AM

This is really beautiful. I really like the vegetation out front and the little bit in the bottom right. Kind of frames the image. I would pull back on the exposure just a bit. To me, it looks just a touch overexposed. Well done.

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

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on January 24, 2017 at 9:49 PM

Hi Steve,

I like this image and it looks OK to me regarding exposure. You might be able to drop the exposure by 1/3rd of a stop, but you may lose details in the mouth and ears. The real neat thing about this image is that she melts into the BG. A predator like this needs to blend in and your image shows this quite well. The comp is very nice and the grass stems help frame her into the scene. Well done.............................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments

Comment posted by Max Waugh on January 27, 2017 at 1:20 PM

Steve, I like the light tones here. This might even look nice as a high key black and white image... light grassy backgrounds like this often work well for those types of images.

I would crop some off the top. I don't think that much empty space is helping, especially since all the interesting stuff (subject, textures) is in the bottom 3/4 of the frame.

Max

Registered on September 26, 2008, 428 Posts, 2329 Comments

Comment posted by Brad Hill on January 28, 2017 at 9:10 AM

Hi Steve,

A very "soft" and calming shot. I am a bit torn about the 3 most prominent grasses on the left side of the shot...while still soft they do tend to "pull my eyes" (away from the subject) a bit, but without them some might argue the shot is a bit "too plain?". Just thinking out loud.

I agree with Max's view about there being perhaps a tad too much space above, but if one experimented with cropping that off I think I'd only take a sliver off.

Cheers...

Brad

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

Comment posted by Genny K. on January 29, 2017 at 10:39 PM

This is fabulous. Like you, I like the bits of grass there, as they give a sense of place. I really like how you caught that look of intense concentration in her eye. That really makes the image for me. Excellent processing, and overall an excellent image.

Registered on June 5, 2006, 132 Posts, 2001 Comments