Kenya

[senojbor]

A few years ago we holidayed in Kenya, a two week break in which we combined with a beach hotel stay and a safari. We also renewed our wedding vows there. (I hired a photographer for this for about £20!! but that's another story)
Anyway, our 2nd week was spent in the bush at quite lovely safari lodges. We hired an open top jeep and driver for game drives. The area we went to was quieter than the Mara and very remote.
Ben our driver was a very knowledgeable guy and could spot things I didn't notice even though he was driving!
He pulled to a stop and said there were lions in some scrub. They had unsuccessfully chased Impala down the hill.
At first I couldn't see them then they appeared. I desperately wanted some decent shots but they were obscured by branches of bushes in the foreground.
After a short while two lionesses came into view and came very close.
In fact they couldn't have come to a better spot.
In an instant one turned and stared at me at which point Ben advised me to put me legs back into the jeep I was sitting on top of!
After a few minutes both lions walked past the jeep and rested about 20 yards away on a hill. They were eyeing up a herd of Buffalo. They appeared too tired for that challenge and after reeling off a few more shots we left.
I got a lot more dramatic lion shots later that week but this one is a favourite of mine

lion-staringfb by Robert Jones, on Flickr

[mugge]

I like the eye contact and the nicely separated background.
Cheers Ole

[Wavelength]

A wonderful image

[Tom Barry]

A shot to be proud of.

[lovelife65]

beautiful kitty. Would like to see a little more oomph in the eyes, but it's a wild cat, so great job and beautiful image.

[Marwus]

Wonderful picture with great story behind it.

[pschlute]

Nice. The eye contact is the thing.

[DanK]

Quite an amazing capture.

The one thing I think might improve this is to increase the separation between the background and the animal. The background is nicely blurred, but it's roughly the same color mix and brightness.

Just out of curiosity, I tried Photoshop's new Object Selection option on the animal, and it seems to created a nearly perfect selection. Then just as illustration, I brightened the animal with a curves tool, adding a bit of contrast by anchoring the curve toward the left, added a bit of vibrance, and then inverted the mask and darkened the background a tiny amount. Not a finished product, but I think it shows a direction you might go.