A pride of lionesses and cubs were traversing the bush early one morning and luckily came upon this water hole. I waited fro them to group and start drinking. Their reflection was mirror like and the third cub seemed to be looking right at me. A special moment.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
Any critique re color tonality, placement of the cubs, light balance.
Technical Details
Sony RX10iii, 24-600 mm lens at 600mm, ISO 100, f4, 1/400 sec
This reminds me of a time in Sabi Sands when a lioness walked through the bush to hunt. You could hear the cubs and she turned to shush them. About 5 minutes after she left, they snuck out and went and drank water. It looked a lot like this moment.
How fun to capture three of them together without an adult. Pretty special.
Great image and I like the editing. My only suggestion is to widen the crop and include the tail of the cub on the left. If you shot it this way, then no worries.
One thing though in looking at your settings, I would encourage you to get that ISO up! Why? These are cubs…they play full out and you never know when another might show up or they start pounce practice on each other. You want to get those action shots so generate more shutter speed!!!
Thank you for your thoughtful suggestions. The camera I was shooting with, a Sony RX10iii doesn’t do well with ISOs in the 600+ range with lots of noise. I could eliminate that with Topaz, but I did not have that software at the time. The cubs actually stayed there for a while and then slowly wander off to join their mom and breast suckle! We were at a distance and a bad angle, so I could just si, watch and be amazed.
