Killer wildlife shot

I hope you enjoyed my first 2 wildlife photo of the week newsletters. flying wattlebirds at dusk and Bald eagle over thunder lake.

This week I wanted to share a powerful ‘killer’ shot with you…

SETTINGS: 1/1000 sec shutter speed on a 520mm lens (150-600mm) with aperture and ISO in auto. 40,000 ISO which is really high.

Why it’s important: This image gives me the same chill down the back of my neck - that same feeling I felt when I photographed this image. If you’ve ever been eye to eye with an apex predator, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

STORY BEHIND THIS IMAGE: This time last year, I was in Africa, leading my Bootcamp Photo Safari, and we were in the Savuti region of Botswana - a wild and beautiful part of Africa.

Every morning we’d get up before dawn, have our coffee and then climb into the open safari vehicle, rugged up against the cold with the excitement of what lay ahead.

Our guide, a man known only as KT, was a master of his craft. He could read the signs in the dirt and knew just where to take us for the best shots. And that morning, as we bumped along in the safari vehicle, he saw something in the tracks that made him stop.

The excitement was palpable as we scanned the brush for any sign of movement. We knew that this was the time of day when the predators were still out hunting. And then, we heard it: the roar of a lion.

KT manoeuvred the vehicle with skill and precision, getting us in just the right spot for the perfect shot. The lion, a massive male with a snipped tail, was the alpha in these parts. He was known as Sekote, the snip-tailed lion, and he was hungry.

As he roared and paced back and forth, we could feel the primal fear rising up in us. It was as if we were standing in the presence of something ancient and powerful, something that could easily turn on us if it wanted to.

And then, without warning, Sekote started walking towards us. He stared straight into my eyes, and I knew in that moment that I was looking at the king of the savanna. It was a moment that would stay with me forever, the fear and the excitement mingling together - the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

He passed our vehicle really close, disappearing into the bush with a swish of his tail.

BAD LIGHT: I looked at my image and knew that I had a killer shot. The problem was that the sun had not risen yet and the light was really dim. Shooting using a faster shutter speed of 1/1000 sec meant that my ISO would be very high - in fact it was 40,000 ISO which means lots of noise in my image.

I took this image into Topaz Photo AI - the software I spoke about last week to see if I could sharpen the details and remove some of that noise.

Works like magic!

POST PROCESSING: After running this image through Topaz to remove noise and add some sharpness I then did the final tweaks in Lightroom. Changing the white balance and tones to make Sekote pop a little more. I also used some masking to reduce the saturation from the background and give Sekote a little more clarity in his face to show those battle scars.

BIG LESSON: The early bird gets the worm! If you get up before dawn, and put yourself out there you’ve got a much better chance of creating moments that you’ll never forget - moments when you come face to face with the wildness of Africa.

Stay inspired.

Brent

P.S. Can I ask you a favour? Please forward this email to any other photographers you know who may be interested in my Wildlife Photo of the Week newsletter.

They can subscribe using this link: https://wildlifephoto.beehiiv.com/subscribe

You’re awesome!