More Lion

[Dipankar Mazumdar]

Dear All,
Another shot of the young male from GNP.Sabyasachi is absolutely right, the Lions attention was preoccupied by a noisy tractor trailor being used to bring mud to repair the forest tracks. Of particular interest to this Lion was the young tractor driver who wore black ( I suspect this particular lion was a little averse to the colour).He would repeatedly approach menacingly towards the Tractor.Ultimately though, he made peace with the driver and settled down in golden dappled sunlight and allowed the driver to photograph him with his rudimentary mobile phone at about 20 feet range. Unfortunately this was a little off track, it was closing time and the forest trackers would not let us take the Gypsy anywhere near the Lion.

At that moment, I wished that for all the jobs in the world, none would give me as much joy as driving a Tractor in Gir national Park!!!

5D Mark II + 300 F4 +1.4x II @ f5.6, 1/250, ISO 3200

Look forward to comments.

Cheers

Dipankar

[Mrudul Godbole]

I am yet to photograph this majestic animal :(. Can surely understand your feelings of taking the job of the driver who could photograph the lion from such a short distance :). It is quite sad to know that a noisy tractor is send into the jungle as if it was a zoo :(.
Nice pose and eye contact. Look forward to know more from Gir. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Tough conditions to photograph. The bright patches at the bottom are a bit of distraction. The gaze is nice. The angle of the shot is nice. If the light was better, then using a narrow aperture for a higher depth of field would have been even better.

I think we have to start a bidding war as to who wants to be tractor driver in gir in next birth. :-)

In the early 1900s, the local trackers called pugees used to move close to a sleeping lion silently and place a small cloth on the lion. Then another puggee would move in silently and pick up the cloth. This practice used to go on for sometime, till one day one lion decided it was enough and the poor puggee paid the price with his life.

Most of the wildlife in those days were shot when a local tracker carried a goat so that the lion gets attracted by the sound of a bleating goat.

Now decide whether you want to hire a time machine to go back into the 1900s and be born as a Puggee (tracker) or as a modern day tractor driver. :D

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Nice image of the young but a huge male, he looks in great shape. Agree with comments made and to Sabyasachi's poll I would prefer a modern Tractor Driver;)
tfs