In this new series, I am going to give some behind the scenes details for one image at a time. I’ll go over some of my settings, what I did in the field, why I composed it the way I did, or any other bit of information that I feel is relevant to the image. I will not be posting this series on Facebook, it is meant to be a bonus article for my subscribers.
This image appears to look like one lioness is stalking the buffalo that is splashing in the water. Here is what really happened-
Day 1 —On our very first day in the Mara we spotted two large Cape Buffalo bulls that were fending off the very large “Topi” pride of lions. I counted nineteen lions in the pride but others in our group said they had counted twenty-three. After a very long waiting game and garnishing all the back history on the shot we learned that the lionesses had once already attacked the one bull. We also found out that he was injured on his backside, though he didn’t appear to have any visible wounds. The other larger buffalo was not injured and was there as added protection trying to fend off the lionesses if they dared to get closer to his companion.
Soon, the sub-adult lions and younger cubs joined in the taunting; being careful not to get too close. A male full-sized Cape Buffalo can weight up to nine hundred kilos. Their horns are massive and with one strike could kill a female lion. At one point one of the male lions entered the scene. We all thought he came in to kill the injured buffalo for the anxiously awaiting pride. However, he was chased away by the second bull. The day ended in a stand-off with the injured bull held up in the water and the lion pride surrounding it. The second male buffalo left the scene as it started to get dark. I guess he figured he had done all he could for his friend.
Day 2–We returned to the drama we had left the night before. Expecting that the injured buffalo would be dead, and the entire pride would be picking on the remainder of his bones. But, when we got there, things were just as we had left them. Same buffalo in the water, same male sitting in the grass, same cubs playing nearby with an eye on their planned meal and the lionesses on high alert, patiently watching everyone.
After a short while the second male lion from the pride joined the rest. He was more anxious than the other male to end the stand-off. I think the buffalo was getting waterlogged and needed to eat, so he tried many times to sneak out of the water hole when the lions were starting to fall asleep. He was met time and time again by the sub adults and lionesses.
One of the times he did manage to get out and he instinctively started to feed. But he had wandered a bit too far from the safety of the watering hole and the second male lion gave chase. It ended with the male lion on the bulls back trying it’s best to take it down. His teeth never did puncture the skin of the buffalo. The buffalo made its way back to the safety of the water and the stand-off resumed. At sunset we left. It was a good 12-hour day of waiting and watching…
The next day we learned that the buffalo was taken during the night, details of his final moments were never revealed.
Now back to my shot. I was looking to capture the water splash as I had seen it happen over and over again. I took multiple images to try to get a substantial splash. When photographing animals near water, I look for a reflection or water splash or even head shake. I try to concentrate on those particular behaviors so that my photo has added interest.
For this shot, the splash was big, and it didn’t cover the buffalo’s head-which is a good thing. I also had the lioness in the background which added significantly to the image -she helps to set the scene and tell the story, without her in the shot, it would not be as powerful.
There is one large clump of grass that I just could not get above without losing that low angle. I decided after my initial shot that I would shoot using a wide-open aperture. Since I was using the Sony 200-600mm, I went with an f/6.3 instead of stopping down for two subjects. If everything from front to back in the image was sharp than I would not be able to direct the viewers eye to where the “meat of the story” is.
Choosing the right aperture is only one of the decisions that needed to be made for this shot. The shutter speed also played an important part when it came to the splash. The splash needed to be significant, but I also needed enough shutter speed to stop the large amount of water that got stirred up by the buffalo. I like to use between 1/1250sec and 1/2500sec. depending on the available light. If it’s not too bright I’ll go down to 1/1000sec. if needed.
To set my exposure for this image, I work in manual mode with natural light for almost all of my natural history subjects with my white balance set to AWB if it is not cloudy. Next, I chose my aperture of f/6.3 (I already explained my thoughts on this setting above), my shutter speed I set to 1/1600sec. since it is usually a good enough shutter speed for action. My ISO (which is now my variable, of the 3 needed settings in the exposure triangle (ISO, Aperture, Shutter speed), since I have already committed to the other 2 settings. I use my live histogram as a guide—I set it to whatever it has to be to get enough light on my subject without any blinking highlights for the water. So that means to push the information on my histogram box over to the right wall without touching it. For my Sony a1, I usually back off of that wall a little more than I did with my Canon bodies. I take a test shot and use my actual histogram and highlight alerts to double check my exposure.
Light angle and positioning near the water hole was an important piece of the puzzle. I was thankful that our driver/guide got us in a great spot and that our group was willing to wait out the drama. Patience is always the key to getting good shots. Yes, we could have left and gotten some mediocre shots of other animals, but getting a really good image and having this experience to remember is part of what makes a good safari. BTW, we did all end up with a boatload of great images from that trip after all this drama was over.
For processing this shot, I should have cloned out the clump of grass, it’s not above my skill set and would be an easy fix, but at the time that I took the image I was still competing and wanted to enter this shot—I never did. So, I may go back to the original and remove it.