Waking a Sleeping Lion by taffy

Waking a Sleeping Lion

Our jeep was a few feet away from this beautiful sleeping lion. A noise woke him up and he treated us to a very wide yawn, twice! Even when sleepy, he certainly conveyed the power in his jaws and teeth!
I spent the majority of the 21 hours of flight time processing photos -- deleting almost 1500 of them and still have almost 2500 remaining. Now the scary part of transferring my Lightroom travel catalogue to my main one! Will be filling in missing slots and posting for awhile -- it's nice to be home, but so glad to have these memories -- and images!
Perfect timing!
January 16th, 2019  
Awesome, great timing!
January 16th, 2019  
Certainly puts you off being an animal dental nurse!! Brilliant fun and good luck transferring your shots!
January 16th, 2019  
Yikes
January 16th, 2019  
Super cool experience and shot!
January 16th, 2019  
Great shot Taffy, how was the z6?
January 16th, 2019  
Amazing. Say "ahhhh", to the max!
January 16th, 2019  
really great shot - and that's so many photos. Hope you transfer things safely and have the rest of the memories safe
January 16th, 2019  
impressing
January 16th, 2019  
Wow!
January 16th, 2019  
@inthecloud5 I used the Z6 for the landscape shots throughout the trip as well as a lot of ‘drive-by’ ones to capture the setting of the villages, cities, and people walking always. I was quite happy with it — a lot of drive-by ones came out fine despite the movement. And I love how it handles. I can’t wait for them to come out with a good zoom lens for it, up to 200 or so. I did have a problem with the sensitivity of the sensor for auto-switching between viewfinder and LED monitor, but now that I know what causes it to stop switching, it’s easy to clean/fix. Are you still happy with yours?
January 16th, 2019  
yowsers!
January 16th, 2019  
Another fantastic shot and I am so hoping that I get such good photos next month! Fav
January 16th, 2019  
He’s magnificent!
January 16th, 2019  
@rosiekind I’m sure you will!! The guides know what to look for and when yours sees your focus on photography, he’ll help you know what to look for. After awhile you start spotting things yourself. You will absolutely love it!! Are you staying in tent camps at all? Those were exciting as you can hear sounds during the night. It’s not scary, just fascinating.
January 16th, 2019  
Wonderful capture! I so look forward to your photos. A year of Africa is fine with me!
January 16th, 2019  
Fabulous, what an adventure! Great shots.
January 16th, 2019  
Waw ! wonderful capture of the king !
January 16th, 2019  
Great timing and capture :)
January 16th, 2019  
And this is another great picture. Fav!
January 16th, 2019  
Impressive and well captured!
January 16th, 2019  
...and his two front teeth! That's very close!
January 16th, 2019  
Such a cool capture!
January 16th, 2019  
Wonderful :)
January 17th, 2019  
Fabulous shot! I remember being in the jeep, as opposed to on foot at these moments was reassuring. But isn't it amazing that the lions aren't particularly concerned that a half dozen people have cameras pointing at them.
January 17th, 2019  
How I felt this morning!
January 17th, 2019  
That is one large jaw!
January 17th, 2019  
OMG, what a mouth! Great shot Taffy, I like it.
January 17th, 2019  
From this distance I can't fault his dental hygiene... ;)
January 17th, 2019  
Wouldn’t want his mouth around my neck
January 17th, 2019  
Wow - that must have quite an experience to be that close to that wide mouth!
January 17th, 2019  
What a yawn! And you captured it!

@vankrey -- remember that cat you photographed yawning ?
January 17th, 2019  
I'm glad it was a yawn and not a growl! Great capture.
January 17th, 2019  
@taffy well if this shot is anything to go by it was worth taking it with you :)
Yes, very happy with mine. I've tried it with some of my other lenses now and the results have been pretty good. Love being able to carry it around all day without feeling the weight, even with a zoom lens on. And having the flexibility of one lens on the 'big' camera and another on this is good too. Haven't had any issues with the viewfinder, is it something that can be fixed?
January 17th, 2019  
@inthecloud5 What seems to happen is that there is a small sensor just above the viewfinder, under the rubber rim that goes around it. It is really sensitive to dust apparently, so that suddenly the LED monitor stops working (viewfinder works as it thinks you are holding your eye up to it as the sensor doesn’t pick up any light. I’ve found if I blow on it (or use a blower on it) to clear the dust, it starts working again. So it’s a clunky solution but it does work. Don’t be alarmed if the LED suddenly stops working. OR, you can set it up to use ONLY the LED and it will be fine. I have mine set up to switch automatically between the two and that’s when the sensor appears to be important.
January 17th, 2019  
Super shot
January 17th, 2019  
Great timing. Fav!
January 17th, 2019  
Wonderful timing!! How wonderful to be so close to this gorgeous beast!!
January 18th, 2019  
@taffy I've got it on the setting to switch automatically so I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet as I'm not super careful about keeping the camera dust-free! Glad you found a solution and thanks for letting me know, at least I'll know how to resolve it when it happens :)
January 18th, 2019  
Beautiful image, love how you captured him mid-yawn. Also great image quality of the Z6
January 19th, 2019  
that is some wide yawn. Not sure whether it can be called an action shot or not, but it is terrific.
January 19th, 2019  
A flashback to the Tokens hit song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
In the jungle, the mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight
In the jungle the quiet jungle
The lion sleeps tonight
January 19th, 2019  
Wow, great shot
January 20th, 2019  
Fav-tastic! Even the big cats act like kittys now and then!
January 20th, 2019  
This makes me yawn as I sit up past my bedtime after a long day. Great capture with him yawning like this. Your timing was amazing. FAV
January 25th, 2019  
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