Determined Run, a photo from Gauteng, East

Photographer's Note

Two lions I photographed at the Rhino and Lion Reserve near Muldersdrift, which is close to Johannesburg. This was taken as the lions were running towards their lunch, a dead cow which is left for them at a specific place by the park rangers.

During weekends the lions are fed at 13:00 every Sunday, which means that they show up there like clockwork. From previous visits I knew that they always come running towards the meat, so I waited and hoped for an opportunity to capture this.

This was taken at 500mm (750mm on the D100) and I still had to crop quite a bit, so the photo is perhaps not as sharp as I would have liked it. There was also some dust in the air, which made the photo even more soft.

Due to the bright light I underexposed by -0.7EV. This was taken on aperture priority at f/8, using ISO 250.

The colors may seem surreal to some, but this is actually very close to the real thing. It is winter here in South Africa, which means that the grass is very dry and brown. I only adjusted the levels slightly, and added just a little bit of saturation and contrast.

carper, Galeota, Liora, jhm, jhonny_blue, jrj, summer89, Zanni, nfriedli, nwoehnl, Rinie_Hoff, Jeppe, efimoore, ornis, kikvel, randompics, Youngsue, MON, kLe, jmaddocks, Traveller, Emiel_Skyfreak, andeweg, dyucelten ha puntuado esta nota como útil.

Critiques | Translate

manny (22032) 2004-06-15 3:00

It's nice. Very good DOF. Quite centered perhaps? The softness of the distant grasses cushion the ferocious nature of your subject. You have a good capture here, undeniably.

Galeota (10352) 2004-06-15 3:02

What an amazing action shot Henry. I suppose you quickly put the tripod in your bag and ran away without turning back... the golden tones are, once again, beautiful.

carper (96) 2004-06-15 3:03

Erg goede foto Henry,
Zeker als ik zie in welke omstandigheden je deze hebt genomen.Wat ik zo goed vind aan deze compositie is the speed, you realy can see the speed. It's realy a great job. Goed gedaan.

Liora (1857) 2004-06-15 3:19

Great photo Henry! You've captured the beauty and determination of those big cats in a well balanced shot. Your planning and patience paid up!

jhm (211734) 2004-06-15 4:26

Difficult moment to photograph, Henry , but I find this a beautiful photograph, the lions are also malignant for their food such as all animals. Beautiful work and thanks for the response.
Mooie foto Henry, prachtig verhaal hoe deze dieren het uur kennen.

jhonny_blue (4956) 2004-06-15 4:42

Beautiful composition ! The expressions of the lions are very strong and hungry !!! :)
Very well done !

jrj (34843) 2004-06-15 5:05

Spetacular shot with these lions running directly towards the camera and also looking to you. Very good capture and interesting not least..

yesterday (9833) 2004-06-15 5:27

Wow - Splendid capture, it is like there both clench one’s fists:-))

Over all a Splendid photo.

summer89 (5422) 2004-06-15 5:56

Wonderfull photo Henry.

The color are great and the lions, too.

Well done

Zanni (6108) 2004-06-15 10:40

Easy the life for these lions. Ready food every day! You have sure worked harder than them to take this splendid photo.

nfriedli (1060) 2004-06-15 10:59

After having taken such risks, I am happy to know you in life to tell you : cheer!

nwoehnl (122) 2004-06-15 12:18

Uah, are they running at you? ;-)
A really spectacular capture, Henry, with the two lions looking into your lens and their pose suggesting a strong movement towards the viewer. The colors and light setting are just as excellent as in the previous photo of the cub, and the DOF is very well handled too. Great shot.

avigur_11 (22535) 2004-06-15 22:17

Determined Run to your direction. I hope that you are not the meat you're talking about.
Excellent and very special shot. Usually they sleep, first photo of a running lion on TE.

Rinie_Hoff (9340) 2004-06-16 8:01

Wow, Henrye, get going, I would say. They are lookign so terribly determined, I like the way they are running, the way they lift their paws, very dynamic shot

cdewet (0) 2004-06-16 9:38

Dis nou waneer 'n mens klein koppie wil trek!
Pragtige aksie. You should just play a bit with colour and fade the white, which is a bit bright. The action here is superb and you did VERY well, my friend.

maciekda (19895) 2004-06-17 3:18

nice picture Henry, two lions running in your directin - that's something. i like this feeling of motion here and those brown tones, good work

joseelias (0) 2004-06-17 4:56

Great Nature photo! Their body movement and expressions are really, really excelent. Also the colors and details are very good.

I just wonder about a tighter crop on the left and the top to put the left lion closer to the margins... Could work well.

dominique (11414) 2004-06-19 15:44

The colors are extraordinary, likes their position and their very impressive glance, a very beautiful photograph.

Burnham (2428) 2004-06-22 5:12

I've just been going over all your images (again :o) and they are amazing, this one caught my eye simply because I thought "Ok, how did henry survive this one?" Glad to read that you were not the target. I have nothing to say except AMAZING!

Jeppe (18654) 2004-06-30 2:15

Wow - How come I missed this one - Don't worry about the picture quatilty, its perfect to me - and motif simply makes makes think of the danger, run, hide ;-)

Glad you got the effective zoom - thanks Henry.

Jan100 (158) 2004-07-08 5:44

This is a fantastic photograph. Well taken. They are such strong and powerful animals and I was lucky enough last year whilst in the kruger park to capture two male lions taking a huge male buffalo down with not car in sight. Unfortunately I did not have my camera at that stage but did get it all on film.

efimoore (2126) 2004-08-21 23:07

Great capture of the lions running towards you, with a goal in their eyes.

ornis (1271) 2004-10-06 8:16

You've catched an very strong resolute expression in these two big cats. Your note helps to understand the situation and the reason of this, otherwise we could have thought they were just coming to have a sharp exchange of words with you :-). The long focal gives also an impression of strenght and compacity, suiting very well your subject. A beautiful wildlife shot, Henry!

[2]

kikvel (4784) 2004-10-06 8:54

wow!!!!

I did not see this!

They are surely determined!!!
very nice capture! they are almost synchronized!

K.

randompics (961) 2005-07-04 1:06

The pic that merits to be published in National Geography, I think. A very nice composition, colors and sharp. The lions are ferocious but yet beautiful..

Youngsue (99) 2005-08-24 16:54

hello Henry. This is a great photo,the lions look very focused and so were you to take this shot. I could look at it all day. Great for a calander.

MON (135) 2005-08-30 9:34

Perfect composition. I think the picture is sharp and colours are correct. You got the shot in a perfect moment (lions running towards where you were). Very well done!.

Ridfa (146) 2005-08-30 9:35

Magnifique composition. Le second plan s'adapte fort bien....

rodamelo (142) 2005-08-30 10:20

it looks like the lions are coming out a dreamy place, with all that brown. i loved it!

softflower (0) 2005-08-30 10:27

Beautiful composition !
The color are great.
This is a fantastic nature photo.
Nico.

itamaratiya (539) 2005-08-30 10:31

perfect!!!!

YaTtAcAn (90) 2005-08-30 10:50 [Comment]

Show Comment

skomy (124) 2005-09-06 7:05

Talking about being at the correct place at the correct time :))

Nice shot there.
goodluck henry!

jmaddocks (563) 2005-10-13 15:35

Hi Henry:
Man, what a shot. This would be a great picture to use for a poster encouraging determination, or teamwork. It has a very inspiring appeal to it.
Well composed, with great colour and clarity.
Excellent!

dsidwell (9783) 2005-10-16 14:28

This is a real dynamic duo, Henry! I think these guys deserve to be centered, their power and virility is very present in this photo!

royh (581) 2005-11-23 18:06

This is automatically one of my favorite shots. Really unique view of lions, and these are beautiful specimen, and you caught each in a different"pose". Terrific colors and detail.

jsec (2154) 2005-12-13 18:18

Absolutely superb. The picture is perfect.

ricard (653) 2006-01-23 20:03

Extraordinary picture with great warm colors.

Svillegas (1169) 2006-01-24 5:17

Hi Henry
Wonderful shot, nice warm colours and nice frozen movement captured, they look like they're gonna come out of the screen!
Sonia

aralda (1240) 2006-07-09 8:09

Hi Henry,
Nice double "portrait"! I like the way the color of the cats matches the tones in the grass.
Raluca

livermore (1631) 2006-07-31 8:19

Bonjour Henri,

Ils ont pas l'air commodes ces deux là!
Magnifique photo.
Félicitation pour votre galerie, c'est un régal pour les yeux.

Vincent

andeweg (139) 2007-05-21 1:19

Very very nice. Good shot, despite the difficulties you had to overcome. ;-)

Thanks for sharing...

vnmathur (23) 2007-05-25 5:41

Beautifully captured

dyucelten (312) 2007-07-18 3:42

Hi Henry,
This is an excellent shot. The sharpness is not very good as you said, but this syncronised walk is very unique and beautiful.
Congratulations,
Deniz

Jean51 (24) 2007-11-26 0:27