This gal looks pretty content. I shoot her often when I visit Wild Animal park and she always has that tongue hanging out like that. It makes her seem a little less fearsome I think.
Love your title - and this old girl is truly a sweetie! It seems as if she would like to wear jewelry and her tongue is that bit of colour she so wants!
@pcoulson Thanks Peter. To be honest I was forced to overprocess to a certain degree as the original was shot though a rather cloudy window. The "dehaze" feature in LR is a lifesaver in some cases, and the result in this case was an inadvertent change of light that worked out in my favour. I rarely get to catch her out in the open, but maybe next time.
@stray_shooter Hi. Just took another look after checking out your response to your comment (Glad I didn't disappoint you! Couldn't bear[speaking of furry mammals] that on my conscience.) Anyway, I forgot to mention what I think is really great about this photo, beside all the obvious normal stuff is the say that the lion seems to be lit from the bottom when we would normally expect her to be lit from the side or perhaps the top or a combination of the two. Gives it a special aura.
She's absolutely sweet and I will avoid being punny about that!