“When the darkness comes, keep an eye on the light - whatever that is for you - no matter how far away it seems.” - Jan Berry

It was a long evening as we sat waiting for two male lions to get active. I always say patience is the name of the game and those who have the patience will be rewarded.

It all started off as usual where there was a yawn here and there and a grooming session every few minutes. The one male eventually got up and went lying down right next to his brother - that’s when I got ready for this shot! As he went down, he looked up at his brother and give him a nice rub against his mane.

The light was perfect and I saw the shadow of the other male falling onto his face, but the light fell right on the eye and made for a great photo.

Equipment Used

• Camera – Canon 7D Mkii
• Lens and Focal length – Sigma 150-600mm F5 – 6.3 DG @374mm

Settings used to capture this image

• ISO – 1600
• Aperture – F 5.6
• Shutter – 1/320

In Lightroom I used Vignetting just to darken some of the edges of the photo and lifted my shadows just to see more of the detail around the eye. I also added +0.90 Exposure.

One of the best parts of photographing these predators is being able to enjoy these great pictures afterwards, especially at night time!