Charleston Male Stare

This particular image for me speaks volumes for the male lion as a force to be reckoned with. This Charleston male was sitting in the rain, feasting on a freshly killed buffalo, when his less dominant brother came over to try and join him. He took great offence to this and immediately set upon him in a flurry of paws and teeth, the less dominant male obviously received the message and slunk off to go and lick what little spatters of blood his brother had drawn from him.

Equipment Used

Camera - Canon 7D MKii

Lens and Focal length - Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Contemporary at 600mm

Settings used to capture this image

ISO 3200 – My ISO was high due to it being very overcast and there not being very much ambient light around to illuminate the subject.

Aperture f/7.1 – I used a smaller than wide open aperture to capture all the detail available in his face, if I had used a smaller f stop I would have had more light but might not have captured the detail.

Shutter at 1/250 – With him being stationary it was easy to capture a sharp image of him moving at such a slow shutter if he was mobile it would have blurred, this is necessary to let in more light as a faster shutter would mean a darker picture.

Editing used on this image

I did this image in a dark black and white to highlight the duality of these animals, one moment they will be working as the most cohesive single unit to bring down one of the most dangerous prey in the wild and then the next they will be at each other’s throats for the smallest of morsels taken out of turn. The fast that they also only see in black and white had much to do with the decision as this is how they see not only each other but the rest of the world, all in all it is a very stark message that they are not to be underestimated.