His Majesty, The King

Gallery: WildlifePosted March 11, 2011126 views9 comments

Canon EOS 40D, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-6.5L IS USM @ 320mm, Program Mode @ f/5.6 (1/250 sec), ISO 800, JPG from RAW

While big cats (particularly Leopards and Black Panthers!) have to be my favourites of the animal kingdom, aside from my Kenyan adventure back in 2006 (when I was still shooting in JPG … hurts every time I think about that!), the only opportunities I've had since to capture images of them have been at my nearest open zoo, which fortunately is only about 40 minute's drive away, so I visit there with some frequency.

But for all the photos I've taken of the big cats (which must be well into the hundreds!) I have only a handful or so that I was able to work with to the point where I feel they're not too bad, and these are the next lot of images I plan on showing you, the first being this magnificent Lion.

The most challenging part about photographing the big cats they have in Khao Kheow Open Zoo is that nearly all of them can only be seen through grimy glass-fronted enclosures, and with the surrounding light it's extremely difficult to find any position whereby the reflection from the glass doesn't compromise the quality of the shot.

I do have a polarizing filter (Hoya Pro1 Digital Circular PL Filter), which was pretty expensive, but I've never been able to see any difference when using it other than making things darker, and generally speaking the light in the enclosures through the glass is already low enough.

A few days go though, I hit upon a brilliant idea – I don't often get them; so please make an allowance for me thinking it “brilliant” ;^) - I brought an umbrella along with me and, with it open and balanced over my shoulder, I could block out the reflection from the glass while still being able to fire off shots with my 70-200. I didn't come back with great pictures by way of well posed or composed shots this time, but now I know the umbrella is so effective I have new wind in my sails, that should last at least until my next trip to Africa :^)

Anyhow, I'll show you the ones I took previously that I'm relatively happy with.

PP: Shaved a few percent off the top, bottom and left-had edges; boosted the otherwise drab looking (to me at least) colour; smoothed the background, and cloned out some of the more distracting marks on the wall behind the subject and a couple of unsightly marks on his back that I felt lent nothing to the image as a whole.

Happy as always to receive critique and comments, thanks in advance for viewing :^)

Kind regards,

Ashley

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Carol Nichols on March 11, 2011 at 9:52 PM

Ashely, your image is as magnificent as the lion. Your composition is very nice and your sharpness and DOF are spot on. Most of all, I could never tell this photo was taken at a zoo. Really nice image

Registered on November 7, 2007, 161 Posts, 1420 Comments

Comment posted by Andrius Pašukonis on March 12, 2011 at 5:27 AM

So this is actually shot through the glass??? Great job! I like your composition and DOF a lot. The light looks pretty damn good to me.

Registered on July 23, 2005, 111 Posts, 408 Comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on March 12, 2011 at 7:15 AM

I can totally relate--the image i just posted was shot through dirty glass and i just got lucky that the light wasnt problematic. I didnt even attempt to shoot my favorite subject (the otters) since it was mid day and the reflections were awful--i should try your umbrella trick!
Anyhow--very nice portrait here of the King! I love his facial expression. My only minor nit is that id like more space around the top/bottom.

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by John Tobias on March 12, 2011 at 8:21 AM

Excellant lion image! The BG does have a slight bit of OOF fencing(or wire or bars), which possibly could be worked on to reduce even more. Good tech to get through the glass. Thanks for sharing.

Registered on September 12, 2009, 2120 Posts, 6455 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 12, 2011 at 11:29 PM

Many thanks for viewing and leaving your thoughts and appreciative comments Carol, Andrius, Stan, and John :^)

I like to think there's something of an art to photographing captive animals that enables viewers to automatically expel thought of the subject's captivity from mind, allowing them to let their imaginations escape from reality to the subject's natural world and marvel at the splendor of all that goes on there :^)

While I sincerely hope I'm always able to present my work in such a way to make it perfectly clear which subjects I've shot in the wild and which were in captivity, I certainly aspire to become enough of artist to achieve the effect mentioned above, although I may still have a ways to go yet before I can achieve this goal with any degree of consistency ;^)

Stan: Although I honestly can't recall the reason why I didn't pull in a bit more on my zoom, which would have allowed more space along the top and bottom, I do seem to remember I had a pretty good one at the time - LOL ;^) Seriously, I think my main aim was to set as much focus on the subject's gaze without zooming in too far, and I probably thought that introducing anything more into the frame than was absolutely necessary to accomplish this would serve more to draw one's attention away from this thought-provoking look the Lion was directing at ... well, truth be told, I can't remember now what he was staring so intently at ;^)

John: The BG you're referring to is neither wire nor bars, but actually some kind of wall. The only way I could think to make it even less distracting than I already have was by doing a complete clone job on it, and I didn't wanted to have the overall effect looking in anyway artificial.

Thanks again everyone and wishing you all a great week ahead :^)

Ashley

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on March 13, 2011 at 3:47 AM

Wow, what lovely detail and light and such good clarity despite the dirty glass. I find this really very compelling, but do echo the comment made about the need for more space top and bottom. The BG does not look really artificial to me, but I suppose you can easily apply a bit of blur on it.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 13, 2011 at 9:17 AM

Thanks for your remarks Vincent :^)

Well noted for future reference to general preference with a shot like this to show more area above and below the subject's head ;^)

If/as and when I use this photo for anything else, I'll have another go at blurring the BG more than I have.

Thanks again one and all, and wishing you a great week ahead :^)

Ashley

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Stu Porter on March 13, 2011 at 5:19 PM

Ashley, this is a very pleasing shot with excellent detail and sharpness. I agree though, a bit more space above the ear and below the chin would have been better IMHO, you have captured a handsome fella though - handsome animals do make a difference - especially with prints :) :)

Registered on March 10, 2011, 8 Posts, 58 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 13, 2011 at 11:50 PM

Thanks Stu, and yes, picking a subject that's attractive and photogenic is a definite plus ;^) I have a number of male Lion photos I came back with from Kenya, but they're manes and coats were so unkempt and bedraggled, well, frankly they looked a mess compared to this one here. Hopefully I'll have better opportunities later this year ;^)

All the best :^)

Ashley

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments