LawrenceGphotos

The Hunter

Oct, 2014

Views

2344

Likes

+233

Awards

Featured

Staff Favorite

Peer Award

+68

Absolute Masterpiece

+34

Superb Composition

+25

Top Choice

+25

Outstanding Creativity

Superior Skill

All Star

Magnificent Capture

Love it

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

I named this Lion, The Hunter! This handsome male Lion was photographed at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, the park is located just outside Doncaster, in South Yorkshire. These big cats live inside the Lion Country reserve, the new reserve was opened in May 2010, and houses a pride of thirteen African lions, all of which came from Oradea Zoological Garden in Romania. And this Male is in prime condition apart from one or two battle scars!

Time

We decided to visit the park at the last minute, when I say we I meant me and my wife she is also a keen wildlife photographer, visiting wildlife parks is the only way we can photograph these wonderful animals It was in the Month of August, light evenings which meant you could go late on, near closing time works better for us, this is a quiet time for the park and most visitors are done at this time and are ready to go home So people are leaving as we arrive, just in time for last admission to the park 16:30 We arrived at the park late afternoon for the purpose of photographing big cats, with no children running around and limited people about, this would be a golden opportunity for us to capturer some cats

Lighting

The weather was good with no cloud in the sky it was simply perfect for this shot, the sun had started to drop slightly due to the time of day so we had no hash light to contend with This gave us a massive advantage, nice soft golden light. This works well for photographing the big cats, due to them being night feeders, this is the time of day when they start to come to life, sleep time is over which is what we was waiting for, we only have a small window of opportunity to get the shot I was looking for

Equipment

I was using a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens on a tripod! This was shot captured at 1/800 f/5.6 ISO 500 shot at 400 mm

Inspiration

We both love wildlife photography, but for me. it's all about photographing the big cat's This beautiful male Lion caught my attention with its light battle scars and handsome looks, he was wide awake and deadly inquisitive to what I was doing just stand there watching him watching me The lion just sat there watching me, I very slowly set opened up my tripod with ane camera attached, quick check of the settings a fired off some frames

Editing

I tend to use Photoshop CS6 for my post processing work, The only work I did here was a small adjustment to the highlights and shadows sliders, higher the saturation a touch and a small amount of sharpening The main bit of processing work for this image was to remove the clutter from the background and replace it with black, I wanted to highlight the face of the Lion after all, he is the King of the park

In my camera bag

Canon 5D Mark II Canon 7D Mark II Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 L USM Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 Prime Lens Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM Lens Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L IS USM Lens Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens Spare memory cards and charged batteries, shutter release cable, polarizing filter Lightweight waterproof jacket and trousers, hat, flashlight, small beanbag

Feedback

Yes be very quiet, take your time and most of all be very patient, set up your equipment and wait, watch there movements, get to know them, if you don't get the shot you want keep going back to the same spot until you succeed, and remember they are animals and they need respect Wild Animals never do what you want them to do, also you need to gain there trust, good luck with you wildlife photography

See more amazing photos, follow LawrenceGphotos

LawrenceGphotos

LawrenceGphotos

The Hunter

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow LawrenceGphotos

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes. Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.

Share photos. Enter contests to win great prizes.
Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.