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.
On an afternoon shoot in the Maasai Mara we came across four young lions (some female, some male) looking at a Monitor Lizard. It was right in front of them but it was not moving. The lions were all looking at it and you could tell they didn’t know what to make of it. I assumed they would capture it the moment it started moving. Most cats can’t resist a chase. However, it started to rain and the lizard started to run. As suspected the lions went for it but when they got close the lizard whacked them with his tail. They retreated and this behavior repeated. Then it became a total downpour, visibility was difficult; the lizard managed to slip away… I was amazed that the group of lions let it get away. I guess it isn’t a known food source for them and they were young and perplexed. I also think they were slightly afraid of the unknown. It reminded me of my dog when I showed it one of those battery operated dogs for the first time. My dog Roxy jumped into my arms and tried to get on my head! She was so afraid of it.
My camera settings were: Sony A1, Sony 200-600mm lens. ISO 3200, 1/640sec @f/8, AWB, Natural light, @200mm. What you can deduce from my settings and the image is that I was working in low light. During this photo shoot I adjusted my shutter speed continuously until I liked the way the rain rendered. If my shutter speed was too fast-the rain looked like tiny dots and you couldn’t see it too much. If my shutter was too slow, the rain looked like streaks and my lions looked blurred. I liked this speed as it looked like snow and softened the entire scene.
To compose it I waited until they were both looking in one direction. They didn’t need to be engaged with me, but they needed to be facing into the scene. It would have been great if I had the tail of the lizard in the left corner of the frame but by this time, the lizard was under grasses and looking for its escape route.
To process the picture, I boosted the clarity a touch and kept the color tones as close to what I saw at the time. Without the heavy rain, the background would have been miserable, with lots of distractions.