Misty Lions
The above image is not the result of fancy editing, but of one of the more interesting weather mornings I have had in Madikwe in a long time.
A few weeks ago we left the lodge at around 06h00 with the idea of just doing a short drive and coffee stop somewhere in the bush. Even back then, a few weeks ago, the temperature has been dropping for quite some time and every morning you could feel the mercury was struggling more and more to lift itself up. After about fifteen minutes out in the field we found a pride of lions on one of the main roads – one male and four females.
Up until we met up with the lions, and for a good deal of time afterwards we were enveloped in a thick layer of mist. The mist was so thick that we could barely see 10 meters in front of us and cmbined with a slight winter’s breeze the blankets on the vehicle were all being put to very good use.
The lions were particularly active this morning which would normally mean great photo opportunities but the mist made it very challenging. Misty conditions are some of the most difficult and frustrating to shoot in. You need to start using lower shutter speeds so more light can enter the camera. You cannot use a flash as the white light from the flash will bounce off the mist and give you seriously washed out images. All in all a pretty tough morning but we still gave it a good go.
I rested the camera on a bean bag after pushing the ISO up to 800. Hey, rather get the shot with a little bit of grain than not at all. Grain and a little bit of noise is not always a bad thing and remember that years ago it was part of the ‘art’ form. Anyway, I digress…
The lioness at the top was quite restless and walking in circles all over the road. This gave us quite a bit of time to snap away. Initially I did not like the image but looking at it now, after a few weeks away from the bush, I actually think it is pretty nice. It leaves you asking questions and when an image does that you are on the right track.
It’s different to the stock-standard-tommy-tourist lion image that too many people are happy to capture. Now I know that these are not award winning image but that is not the only thing photography is about. Yes, we always strive to create mind blowing images but it is about the journey as well. Different. Yes – we like different.
The male lion was a lot more difficult to photograph as he was in and out of the bushes marking his territory and did not want to hold still for his ‘lion in the mist’ image. Finally he came out into open which gave me a chance to get this shot.
Not having done a helluva lot photography in the mist I found it quite an interesting exercise in metering. Do you meter off the haze around the lion, which was absolutely everywhere, or on the lion itself? Ultimately I decided to use Centre-Weighted Metering off the lions mane & shoulder area and shot the image wide open as I did not have to worry about the background being in or out of focus. – there was no background! The result speaks for itself as you can see on the left.
Only after about two hours did the sun manage to start breaking through the cloudy haze but only to the point where we were left with an incredibly bright white haze around us. It was almost as if we were indoors under artificial lighting.
As the pride got up to move off, the image above is the last decent one I got that morning. You can see the strong overpowering light in the top of the frame.
All in all a great sighting and a very interesting photo morning.
As always I look forward to hearing from you.
Until next time.
