DavidForbesPhotography

lioness and cub

Sep, 2017

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Behind The Lens

Location

The photo was taken in a private game reserve adjoining Kruger National Park in South Africa. All the fences are down, so Big 5 roam at will. But these cubs belong to a special pride called the Western Pride, and the pride male was a beautiful lion affectionately known as Skye. He was illegally hunted in 2018 by some neighbouring landowners via a hunting outfit who serviced an American hunter. His death caused somewhat of an outrage globally (not quite as big as the Cecil debacle). One of his cubs was killed the next day, and the pride has suffered tremendously as they try to regroup. This picture was taken before that occurred.

Time

As with most wildlife predator pics, we photographers struggle with poor light. Predators like lions and leopards only wake up to hunt after sunset, so you are constantly dealing with pre-dawn or dusk, or just pure night, where ethically one does not use spotlights, or only ones with red filters, and then sparingly, shining not on the animal's face, but on its back, or on the ground near it. So we have movement, poor light, and lenses that just are not fast enough. Even a 400mm Canon 2.8 will struggle in these conditions. Camera blur, subject movement, slow shutter speeds, poor depth of field are all hazards we face every day when filming wildlife.

Lighting

In Africa, full daylight can be very harsh, contrasty and create exposure problems. Sunset and sunrise are the best times for wildlife photography/filming. We did have backlight here, but as we were shooting well into dusk, there was no rim light, no contrast and the hazards mentioned above were fully in play. The advantage of dusk shooting is the lack of contrast, which one can increase in post, but at least you can get an even exposure. It then becomes incumbent on the photographer to try and create more depth by separating the subject from the background through tone differentiation (situating yourself so that the subject is against a very dark, or very light background).

Equipment

Canon 650D camera, with Canon 18-135mm T3.5 lens. The actual lens was probably about a 75mm, wide open, handheld at 800 ISO and a shutter speed of around 1/30 sec. I'm very good at handheld at low shutter speeds due to my cinematography background.

Inspiration

We love wildlife (my wife and I, we are both photographers), and lions are always special. One is always looking for a better shot, so one never tires of watching animals and looking for unusual angles/behaviour. We were tipped off about where the cubs were after hunting them for days. We found them just after sunset, about 10m off the road, lying in the grass with a kill nearby that had fed the cubs. There were three lionesses there (sleeping), four cubs (playing). We must have spent about 45 minutes there until it was too dark to continue, and took hundreds of photos, many of which were useless due to the problems I mentioned above due to shooting in very low light and challenging conditions. I managed to get this when the mother lioness got up to inspect us when we moved the vehicle a bit. The cub came up to her, and I was able to capture this shot. You can see a bit of subject blur on the cub's paw.

Editing

Slight cropping to eliminate unnecessary detail, added a little contrast, upped the exposure slightly, and sharpened it. I reduced the saturation markedly and added a bit of sepia.

In my camera bag

As South Africans, our weak currency and relatively poor incomes mean camera equipment is really expensive. I have a small khaki bag, with my trusty Canon 650D, a Canon 18-135mm lens that came with the package, and a Sigma 150-600mm which is a great lens and these two lenses give me coverage from 18mm-600mm which is necessary for the range of wildlife, including birds. While we are saving up for expensive Canon 400mm T2.8 lenses (THE Rolls Royce of Canon lenses!) my wife can sometimes borrow a 400mm from her work (a newspaper) and I sometimes hire a 400mm. You can really see the difference. Otherwise, lots of batteries, fast cards, and pretty much that's it, aside from a Selvert cleaning cloth, sunblock, a beanie, gloves, birdbook, binoculars (Zeiss 10x42), and other wildlife accessories such as spoor guides (I once tracked a pride of lion four kilometres and found them!) and a khikhoi which is a very useful piece of equipment for keeping equipment dust or rain-free, or keeping the sun off one's back!

Feedback

Patience, knowledge of animal behaviour, and constant alertness are key skills. You can miss a great photo in an instant if you were distracted or became bored. When animals are on the move, you have to move quickly and make snap decisions that will influence the outcome of your photos. Watching the light constantly, checking focus manually constantly (I don't know how many amazing photos were ruined by a small twig or blade of grass that took the focus from the eye of the animal and made the photo slightly out of focus). You must know your equipment backwards, always have a spare battery and card within reach. You also have to know certain formulations, such as the right combination to get the correct depth of field, enough shutter speed to freeze the movement (the movement of a lion or an eagle are very very different), and to use the light, the background, and every other factor in your viewfinder and camera to achieve a more perfect photo. When wildlife action occurs things can get very hectic! You may need to move the vehicle, there may be other vehicles, prey or predators to think of, the best angle for your next picture, and then all the complex decisions around the actual photograph itself. But I love the challenge!

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DavidForbesPhotography

DavidForbesPhotography

lioness and cub

Behind The Lens

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