Lions at their wildebeest kill in South Africa

[Mike Buckley]

I feel so unbelievably lucky to have seen this scene and am so surprised that I had this many keepers in such nice light that I am posting all of them. That's my way of apologizing for posting eight photos.

The pride of lions in the Madikwe Game Reserve had killed and devoured the wildebeest the night preceding our morning game drive. Only the skin, hair, bones, hooves, horns and stomach, which is extremely tough and not shown in these photos, were remaining. Even so, the cubs were happy to try devouring every last morsel. As you can see, some of them were also happy to pose for the camera.

We were so close to the lions that we could hear their teeth grinding against the bones of the carcass. Some of these photos are full-size except for being cropped on the sides. None are heavily cropped. I was using a 300mm lens mounted on a camera with a 1.5 crop factor.

I don't usually explain EXIF data but it's easy to do with this set. All photos were captured at f/11, 1/640 second and ISO ranging from 2800 to 4500. I used Aperture priority and Auto ISO set to a minimum shutter speed of 1/640 second and a maximum ISO of 6400. The metering was matrix (multi-segment) metering combined with the exposure compensation at +1/3EV. I also used one-point auto focusing, continuous shooting at 3 frames per second, and Auto1 white balance.


Photo #1



Photo #2



Photo #3



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Photo #5



Photo #6



Photo #7



Photo #8

[Manfred M]

Wow! You were lucky to get the feasting lions. The good lighting was a real bonus. Nice shots, Mike.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, Manfred! Very lucky indeed!

[chauncey]

Mike, those are great...your excursions however, make me green with envy.
BTW, that last image reminds me of Thanksgiving at our kitchen table.

[CBImages]

Not exactly my idea of breakfast ;-)

A lovely set of images and great eye contact too!
Thanks for sharing them

[Downrigger]

Very,very nice. And thanks for the Exif. These are at high ISO for fast exposure - suggests to me you were working at a pretty long focal length?
Eye contact indeed great - so much as to say: "you might be next".

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you, everyone!

Mark: I was using a 300mm lens on a camera with a 1.5 crop factor. So, I used a minimum shutter of 1/640 to accommodate for that issue and that the lions are constantly moving, especially when chomping down at the breakfast table.

[deetheturk]

Super images Mike,you sure had a great trip!

[Kaye Leggett]

Great images - you have captured the lion's contentment at their feast perfectly.