07-lioness stare-2
Apr, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This shot was taken in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Love the African bushveld and wildlife. As an avid amateur photographer, I never miss an opportunity to visit my happy place - Kruger National Park.Time
Taken early morning just after sunrise. Came around a corner in Kruger National Park, and there were a mating couple of lions - the lioness walked into the road staring me straight in the eye showing her discontent with my intrusion and disruption of their continued mating ritual. Lions don't blink and when a wild lion stare at you at close range through an open car window, there is something in the small of your brain telling you you are now being seen as food....Lighting
The soft tones of early morning made for the perfect lion portrait with no obvious highlights. The soft light offered a very muted background of the road behind her framing the lioness's face with the focus on her fixed stare of the eyes.Equipment
This was taken with a Nikon D300 and a Sigma 50-500mm f4-6.3 non stabilized lens, hand held.Inspiration
Unless you have experienced the stare at close range of a wild lion in its natural environment, it will be difficult to comprehend the effect it has on you - I tried to capture the essence of that stare and the way it makes your natural instinct of fear to surface instinctively.Editing
Shot in Jpeg and did some basic editing - cropping and sharpening in photoshop and increased contrast a bitIn my camera bag
For shooting wildlife in Kruger National Park, I as a rule use my trusted (Now aging) Nikon D300 and Sigma 50-500 4-6.3 lens as this offers such great versatility that you can use one lens for almost all instances without the need to change lenses. Normally have a 24-70mm f2.8wide angle lens for some landscapes, a 105mm f2.8 macro lens to photograph some insects, a 1.4 tele-converter for some distant shots and tripod with me on my trips to Kruger.Feedback
Kruger National Park in South Africa offers such wonderful wildlife photographic opportunities with a great variety of mammals, birds, reptiles and most of all predators, including all of the Big 5 - knowing your subject and their behavior and habits go a long way of getting a good wildlife shot. Being able to anticipate your subjects next move aids tremendously in capturing that special behavior or action. Be patient when shooting wildlife.
