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garrychisholm

Lion King

E-420

Aperture f/6.3 ISO 400 Shutter 1/1600

upload_date

Apr, 2013

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864

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Behind The Lens

Location

This image of Themba, the white lion, was taken at my very first ever photography workshop which was held at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent, UK on March 30th 2013 which was my birthday.

Time

The image would have been taken later in the day as the sun was less harsh which made the lighting conditions ideal for this picture.

Lighting

As mentioned above, this was later in the day when the sunny conditions made for much better lighting. Had I taken this picture even just half an hour earlier, the image would have been far less effective.

Equipment

This picture was taken with my old faithful Olympus camera which sadly has come to the end of its days. I used a 70-300mm lens.

Inspiration

Themba was positioning himself on a raised platform which enable me to get a clear shot of him with the clear blue sky behind him. Suddenly he struck up this pose, which I can only describe as a true Lion king pose, and the result is here for all to see. It is a picture which I cherish for two main reasons; a) it was the picture which convinced me to pursue wildlife photography more seriously and b) Themba sadly passed away last month at the tender young age of 7 years old but I am so proud of this picture because it captures him and his sheer beauty in all his glory and will be a constant reminder of what a magnificent animal he was.

Editing

Aside from cropping the picture slightly I didn't do any post-processing.

In my camera bag

I now have a Canon 7D camera and nowadays I use three lenses in particular depending on the circumstances. Lens option #1: I have started to do macro shots and invested in the Sigma 105mm macro lens. Lens option #2: the tried and trusted 70-300mm lens which I use the majority of the time as it is ideal for the subjects I photograph at captive animal collections. Lens option #3: I invested in the Tamron 150-600mm lens at the start of this year to support my ambition to photograph more wildlife in their natural habitat. To achieve this, it was clear I needed a lens which enabled me to capture images of wildlife without spooking them by getting too close.

Feedback

The best advice I was ever given was to place as much importance on the background of a subject as to the actual subject itself. Had I not crouched down low enough, I would never have managed to get the clear blue sky behind Themba in this picture. If I had been just twelve inches higher, there would have been fencing and a railway line in the background. Some people would say these could be 'photoshopped' out of the image however, aside from the fact I don't have access to or use photoshop, for the sake of a few inches I was able to capture the right image first time rather than give myself a lot of unnecessary work at a later time..

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garrychisholm

garrychisholm

Lion King

Behind The Lens

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