The One That Got Away…
It was a few years ago in the Mara, our safari vehicles were trailing an adult lion that had been following a lioness for hours. Several times the female roared and hissed as she turned to face the male in an effort to rid him from her trail or should I say- tail!
After constant repositioning, stopping, and going, it looked as if the lioness would rest in the shade of a small bush. As she made her way around the bush to her final resting spot we followed slowly.
Our three vehicles were now juggling for position; looking for the best light and angle to shoot these two if or rather when the mating would begin. Our guide assured us that the male would not give up and the female would surrender in due time.
I decided we needed to move our truck around to the other side of the bush- kind of a 90-degree angle so that we would not be in the other vehicles shot. This can be a risky move as you never want to be repositioning when the action starts. But we did not have a good shot where we were so we all agreed we would go for broke.
As we moved around the bush, I noticed that we had a clear shot with nothing in the background, we were clear of the bush and the light was directly behind us— bingo!! My group and I were happy with our move, we all waited patiently for the action to start. And believe me, we expected a lot of action!
I switched setups so that I now had my 100-400 mm lens instead of my 600 mm lens, I did not want to clip anything. Since we all have a full row to ourselves in the vehicles, having two cameras set up with different focal length lenses attached to each makes switching quite easy. No need to change lenses out in the dusty reserve.
After a few minutes, the male became restless and started pestering the female as she tried to rest peacefully. Several times she pawed, hissed, and showed her teeth. It was pretty effective for a while.
Then the male had enough playing around, he was ready for action. He made a bold advance toward the lioness. This time she leaped toward him with a very loud, powerful roar. He jumped back a foot or so and was in midair with all four feet off the ground as he tried to get away from her attack- she connected with him and he backed off shaking his head as he tried to regain his composure.
Well, just as the female roared, I too jumped back a foot or so and ended up across the seat- slightly discombobulated... needless to say my well thought out shot was slightly blurry. It was full frame, perfectly composed and it would have been a winner <wink>. It was not like I didn’t expect some kind of action. I was set up for a tangle. But that was the loudest roar I had ever heard!! So much for being prepared...It would not have hurt so bad if the lion didn’t have all four feet splayed, off the ground, with a “scared out of his mind” look on his face.
How about you? Do you have a tale of the “One That Got Away”, if so email it to me, I’d love to share your story in a blog post.