Stalking Lion Golden Light

An early morning game run proved fruitful
D850 200-400 f4
400mm f6.3 1/640 iso 200

As if you are just there in front of the cat!  I'm sure you are a bit away, but what is the closest you have been to a lion?  I know I've seen shots of yours on the board with the cheetahs, which as I recall jump on your trucks.  What about lions?

Roger Lang wrote: As if you are just there in front of the cat!  I'm sure you are a bit away, but what is the closest you have been to a lion?  I know I've seen shots of yours on the board with the cheetahs, which as I recall jump on your trucks.  What about lions?

He says in his post 400mm 

Exposure tours -     incredible 

Roger Lang wrote: As if you are just there in front of the cat!  I'm sure you are a bit away, but what is the closest you have been to a lion?  I know I've seen shots of yours on the board with the cheetahs, which as I recall jump on your trucks.  What about lions?

Thanks. Lions dont use vehicles like some cheetah do to get a better view. Sometimes they walk right up to the vehicle though, requiring me to switch to a wide angle or standard lens

So cheetahs are more tolerant to humans than the lions?  I thought these cats are kind of the same size right?  Curious why cheetahs jump all over trucks and are close proximity, yet the lions not so??   

Love your images and it may just be me, but it seems like they all have a green tint to them. If I pull them into Photoshop they still have a green tinge to them unless I adjust it just a little. Great images, even with the tint.

ThatNikonGuy wrote: So cheetahs are more tolerant to humans than the lions?  I thought these cats are kind of the same size right?  Curious why cheetahs jump all over trucks and are close proximity, yet the lions not so??   

Very much more tolerant. All the Big Cats are very different in their behavior, hunting habits, pack mentality, etc. Also size, physique and strength vary. All unique.  There is only really one location where lions will climb tress or anything, they are more used to going onto mounds, hills etc. Cheetah are much lighter and more agile so if nothing else is available and they are comfortable (not all cheetahs are) they can jump onto a vehicle. It is rare though. Leopards will never do it, the are quite shy

Shadowfixer1 wrote: Love your images and it may just be me, but it seems like they all have a green tint to them. If I pull them into Photoshop they still have a green tinge to them unless I adjust it just a little. Great images, even with the tint.

Thats very, very  interesting, They are shot RAW so should be flat, WB is auto. I might expect it on the same day/time but not across the board. I shoot a lot of interior stuff too which are all neutral for sure. This would only leave the lens to be the issue as i use the 200-400 solely for wildlife so maybe it just the coatings. That being said I use a 28-300 as well for some of the shot so Im not sure, Are you seeing a green shift on the RGB curve? is the monitor spyder calibrated? If so it might just be a characteristic of the long lens

Yes, my monitor is calibrated and I do use the Spyder. Auto WB can be an issue when shooting golden light. Auto WB tries to correct the color to be correct and sees the image as too warm. That's why on sunsets, etc., I use Daylight WB most times so the camera doesn't correct the image from being too warm. I can post a corrected image if you like, otherwise I don't post revisions without approval. It may be just me but I have put off saying something for a while as I don't won't to offend anyone but these images are so good, I couldn't help myself.

Thank you for responding so quickly.  So will lions ever attack a cheetah or the other way?

Shadowfixer1 wrote: Yes, my monitor is calibrated and I do use the Spyder. Auto WB can be an issue when shooting golden light. Auto WB tries to correct the color to be correct and sees the image as too warm. That's why on sunsets, etc., I use Daylight WB most times so the camera doesn't correct the image from being too warm. I can post a corrected image if you like, otherwise I don't post revisions without approval. It may be just me but I have put off saying something for a while as I don't won't to offend anyone but these images are so good, I couldn't help myself.

cool can you pm the file to me, I dont really want to encourage other users to download my files

ThatNikonGuy wrote: Thank you for responding so quickly.  So will lions ever attack a cheetah or the other way?

The Big cats are very predatory as I think domestic ones are. A cheetah will almost always back down from a fight even if has a kill. Ive seen Lions chase both cheetah and leopards away, mostly cheetahs and leopards stay well clear as much as they can.

One of my encounters i had in 2007 was interesting and memorable, a leopard was stuck up a tree as 2 lions looked hungrily up from the base of the same tree

bryanpereira wrote:

Shadowfixer1 wrote: Yes, my monitor is calibrated and I do use the Spyder. Auto WB can be an issue when shooting golden light. Auto WB tries to correct the color to be correct and sees the image as too warm. That's why on sunsets, etc., I use Daylight WB most times so the camera doesn't correct the image from being too warm. I can post a corrected image if you like, otherwise I don't post revisions without approval. It may be just me but I have put off saying something for a while as I don't won't to offend anyone but these images are so good, I couldn't help myself.

cool can you pm the file to me, I dont really want to encourage other users to download my files

Don't think PM is available on this site. Doesn't matter. Let's just pretend I never said anything. Look forward to more of your posts.