Lion Reflected

Kyle Jones

Kyle Jones

Moderator
While attempting to take a landscape photo during a beautiful Botswana sunrise in the Savuti, I was distracted by the roars of nearby lions. We quickly grabbed our shots and then jumped back into the truck to find them. We quickly found four adult male lions, likely brothers, that were wandering through the area.

The real treat was when this lion decided he was thirsty and stopped for a drink, with his face perfectly illuminated by the warm light of sunrise.

Any thoughts are welcome.

9039 Lion Reflected_850.jpg
 
JimFox

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Kyle Jones said:
Thank you Monika! This was shot at 500mm with the Canon 500 f/4L (Mk1).
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Now that to me makes the image even more powerful, shooting animals with a fixed focal length lens always seemed really difficult. In my head I worry will I be too close and I can't frame it, will I have to quickly run further back to fit it in. So I have always stayed with a long lens zoom.

But I think almost all of the really good wildlife guys use fixed focal length lenses because they are faster usually. So it's a Me issue I am sure. But I want to say then what an even greater job on your part with getting this since you probably had to know how far you had to be away as you approached?
 
Kyle Jones

Kyle Jones

Moderator
JimFox said:
Now that to me makes the image even more powerful, shooting animals with a fixed focal length lens always seemed really difficult. In my head I worry will I be too close and I can't frame it, will I have to quickly run further back to fit it in. So I have always stayed with a long lens zoom.

But I think almost all of the really good wildlife guys use fixed focal length lenses because they are faster usually. So it's a Me issue I am sure. But I want to say then what an even greater job on your part with getting this since you probably had to know how far you had to be away as you approached?
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I brought two bodies on this trip, both Canon R5. I generally kept the 500mm lens with a 1.4x extender mounted on one body (700mm f/5.6 effective) and an RF 100-500 zoom on the other. As we approached subjects, I made a judgement call which body to start with and adjusted. There were a few times where I was clearly too close with the long lens and had to switch to the zoom, sometimes missing some action in the switch. At the edge of the day when light was low, I removed the extender from the 500 to give myself an extra stop of light. That's why this one was shot at f/4.

In this case, we had stopped by the watering hole as the lions walked by and this one decided to come in for a drink. The 500 was too long to get the whole body but I decided it was perfect for this portrait orientation.
 
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Eric Gofreed

Eric Gofreed

Well-Known Member
Kyle Jones said:
While attempting to take a landscape photo during a beautiful Botswana sunrise in the Savuti, I was distracted by the roars of nearby lions. We quickly grabbed our shots and then jumped back into the truck to find them. We quickly found four adult male lions, likely brothers, that were wandering through the area.

The real treat was when this lion decided he was thirsty and stopped for a drink, with his face perfectly illuminated by the warm light of sunrise.

Any thoughts are welcome.

View attachment 50718
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you should get more distracted! Great one, Kyle
 
JimFox

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Kyle Jones said:
I brought two bodies on this trip, both Canon R5. I generally kept the 500mm lens with a 1.4x extender mounted on one body (720mm f/5.6 effective) and an RF 100-500 zoom on the other. As we approached subjects, I made a judgement call which body to start with and adjusted. There were a few times where I was clearly too close with the long lens and had to switch to the zoom, sometimes missing some action in the switch. At the edge of the day when light was low, I removed the extender from the 500 to give myself an extra stop of light. That's why this one was shot at f/4.

In this case, we had stopped by the watering hole as the lions walked by and this one decided to come in for a drink. The 500 was too long to get the whole body but I decided it was perfect for this portrait orientation.
Click to expand...
That sounds like the perfect setup! Thanks for sharing your thought process.
 
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MonikaC

MonikaC

Well-Known Member
Kyle Jones said:
I brought two bodies on this trip, both Canon R5. I generally kept the 500mm lens with a 1.4x extender mounted on one body (720mm f/5.6 effective) and an RF 100-500 zoom on the other. As we approached subjects, I made a judgement call which body to start with and adjusted. There were a few times where I was clearly too close with the long lens and had to switch to the zoom, sometimes missing some action in the switch. At the edge of the day when light was low, I removed the extender from the 500 to give myself an extra stop of light. That's why this one was shot at f/4.

In this case, we had stopped by the watering hole as the lions walked by and this one decided to come in for a drink. The 500 was too long to get the whole body but I decided it was perfect for this portrait orientation.
Click to expand...
I think it's probably much more powerful as a portrait than with the whole body.
You can't exactly run around to a different vantage point while on safari. Unless you wanted to make yourself prey, that is. Prime lenses make you work harder, think more &, as a result, give you better images (not always, but optimally........)
 
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