Under the shade

Some tough light. I would have liked some light on the face of the lion, but know how that goes on safari. Maybe a crop off the top to eliminate some of the bright background and try to focus more on the lion.

Very nice lady! She looks like she just want to be photographed

I like her relaxed but totally alert pose. If only a little of that light had found her eyes! Maybe it is only me so I am interesting in what others might see, but I think I see a faint greenish cast to the overall image. It might be reflection of surrounding greenery or maybe just my eyes/or monitor!

She might be resting because of the heat, but the alert pose tells me she has not eaten (enough) the night before. It is exactly that alert look that makes the image worthwhile for me. You handled the difficult lighting situation well here Luca, both in the field and in post processing. Knowing these kind of situations with lions lying in the shade at midday all to well, the best thing to do in such situations IMO is to go in close, if you can and with the help of more focal length, and focus an details and facial expressions.In this case I find her a bit too cetered and wonder if cropping some from the right will help the overall composition.
As for Lon's comment about the cast I cannot ad much now as I am looking at it from my uncalibrated monitor. If I remember I will check back tomorrow and tell you if I see a cast as well.

I appreciate your exposure and processing given this light. I think it show the shade/sun contrast perfectly, without calling attention to the camera. Not sure if it's just my eyes playing tricks on me, but I wonder if there is a slight counter-clockwise tilt here.

@Paul, I tried to cut out the upper part,but the result is to go very close to a pano format that doesn't fit to this shot, IMO. Instead I could try to mask that area:lets see.
@Lon it could be also my tuning that leads to green,I've to call for my wife to check (i have a small daltonism in the green/brown area so ...).
@Vincent you're right about the cut, but I would have liked to have more room on the left to decenter this to the right,but unfortunately I haven't. You're also right about going closer, but as i said nobody saw her (ranger included) and i was, obviously, not allowed to go out for a walk.
@Wayne, maybe you're right maybe not if you look at the eyes level the left one is lower than the right but if you look at the ears the left is higher than the right one. so, fifty-fifty.

Despite of the fact that the lighting situation was tough you did a good job here although i would like to see some light on the face. I love her pose: it's so relaxing yet very alert.