Finding a great subject in great light is why every wildlife photographer spends hours and hours out in the field.
Yesterday evening, about 15 minutes before the sun dropped below the horizon, we found four young lion cubs on a high west-facing dam wall. The mathematics was quite simple.
Cubs + 15 minutes to sunset + west-facing = magic!
Apart from the amazing golden light there was another added bonus that lifted the scene from amazing to photographic nirvana. The golden light was not only falling directly on the young cats but it was also bouncing off the water.
If you look at the shadows in the photograph you will see that there are two. The dark, smaller shadow is from the direct sunlight while the softer shadow is from the reflected light off the water. It almost looks like a studio shoot but I assure you, this was taken in the wild!
The last few days have been absolutely great for wildlife photography so lots of new images lined up for blog posts and stock library.
Later this week I will be posting details on ‘Wildlife Photography 101’, a new 2-day workshop we will be launching in September. Exciting stuff!
See ya tomorrow!
Gerry
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fantastic!!!!! nice picture, perfect composition, real life!!!!
I like it!
oh man why couldn’t we get this scene on our trip
gorgeous…can imagine you’ve got many gigabytes of images from this afternoon…
Morkel, you would probably have filled up a few 8GB cards. It was fantastic!!
You gonna have to visit again so we can try and find something similar!
Thanks! Was a great sighting!
We will HAVE to arrange a return visit my friend…:)
Checking times and will let you know!