Singita, Tanzania 2019

The Singita private reserve bordering the Serengeti in northern Tanzania boasts around 250 lion. That is the highest density in the world and some of the prides constitute some 20 to 30 lion together. To run into a pride that big is to witness one of nature’s great offerings.

The problem for a photographer is how to do the pride or the opportunity justice. If the lion are in the grass – as they almost invariable will be up north – there is no way a cameraman can get out of the jeep – it is unfeasible to watch out for so many lion.

If a cameraman is in a jeep, unless the lion are at raised elevation (such as on a rock), the camera will always be pointing down. The closer to the lion, the more obvious the downward perspective and the further away the lion, the greater the need for magnification, which compresses emotion as well as distance.

If the lion are together in one huddle, it can be messy – a bit like an Hieronymus Bosch painting – a messy cocktail of legs and tails. I want simplicity and I also like the lead character not just to be close, but also pin sharp. That determines my composition.

On this occasion, I was able to be close enough to use my favourite 200mm lens and luckily the lion were on land that was slightly higher than mine. The lead character in the image was probably just a foot higher than me. So, if I was 10 feet away, the gradient of 10% is enough for a 200mm to cover up. I am reminded that whilst key words in photography are emotion, research and authenticity, one that must never be forgotten is maths.

Serengeti, Tanzania 2019

When I took this photograph at around 7.30 am in the kopjes of the Serengeti, I was not overcome with adrenalin. The large male lion was totally aware of my presence, but indifferent to me. In the Serengeti, lions and cameramen coexist and the big cat’s daily routine is dominated by sleep – not by terrorising cameramen.

I was not as close as I would like to have been, but close enough in the circumstances. It is easy to become a little complacent with lion, but it is a mistake that can be fatal.

When I reviewed the few images I took that day, I felt it had something to make it a little more special. It is probably its simplicity, after all, it has just two ingredients – lion and rock. Less is often more in photography – and I have always favoured a reductive approach. It was not a demanding photograph to take, we just needed to put in the hours to find a lion in the right place. Sometimes it is simply leveraging the commitment of time.

The Serengeti is the lion capital of the world – probably more than 4% of the total lion population of Africa live in the Singita Grumeti/ Serengeti ecosystem. The enormous rock boulders or “kopjes” that define all but the northern section are the perfect backdrop to photograph lion – much more so than say woodland or indeed the plains. When Disney’s new blockbuster – The Lion King – is released next month, I suspect that there will be many scenes of lions on rocks. In many ways it is the backdrop that defines a lion and that is why this photograph has something.

I knew that this image had energy and an abundance of content, but I only fully understood its power to engage from its social media popularity. There are many parts to the image that contribute to its strength – such as the dust that the lion has kicked up or the late afternoon light on the water reeds. But most of all, it is the lion in full flight that is magnificent.
Yes, I am proud that the image is technically perfect when I am quite obviously in harms way, but the image is made by him, not me. What a gorgeous animal – surely in grace, power and beauty it transcends all other species. We should be most careful not to lose them from our planet.
And that late afternoon, he had just the one foot on the ground.

South Africa, 2019

Shooting from a cage on land is uncomfortable, but is doable. However, shooting from a cage in water is a little extreme. Every time something rubs your leg, you imagine it’s a water snake or a small croc. On the flip side, it is the best way of cooling down on a hot African afternoon.

I wanted to be below the eyes of the lion and this meant that only my head and camera were above the water level. The 200mm lens I shot this with is not light and of course I could not put it down.

The clarity of the lion’s face and the water drops make the image, which is well framed. Adult male white lions are a joy to photograph – there is a sense of gatecrashing a fairytale.

This is a very big lion and no matter the fact that I was in a cage, the heart was beating for sure.

Maasai Mara 2017

Taken early one morning in East Africa this simple and clean picture has a symbolism. There is no more important or pivotal job in the world than being a mum. This is true of every mammal – not just humans.

Dinokeng, South Africa 2014

Remote control positioning requires days of research and monitoring of past behavior and then a strong mathematical head. Once the camera is positioned neither the exposure settings or the focus can be changed. At sunrise and sunset this represents a big dilemma because the light changes by a “stop” every 5 – 10 minutes. Also in fading or rising light (in this case fading) the aperture of the lens will not be so closed down as to offer accommodating depth of field.
The use of remote controls with lions is also dangerous, because if the lion gets as close to the remote as one would like – and I tend to shoot with a wide-angle lens on a remote – there is every chance that the lion – on seeing the camera – will attack it.
I wanted an angle from the ground looking up right underneath a jumping lion and this required placing the camera in a muddy stream in the hope that the lion would jump so as not to get wet. Seconds after the picture was taken the lion took my camera hostage but the image that survived the mauling conveys beauty, power and vitality.

Dinokeng, South Africa 2017
Words by Kevin Richardson (“The Lion Whisperer”)
There is no doubt that the lion is one of the most culturally significant animals for humankind and has been depicted throughout the world for millennia.
In Egypt the sphinx has the body of a lion, which was a sacred symbol of the goddess, who safeguarded the pharaohs in the afterlife. Stories and art throughout the Middle East show the lion representing great kings and as their companions. Chinese culture portrays the lion as a creature of great majesty safeguarding humans from ghosts and demons.
Although the lion is mostly represented as a noble, fearless and sometimes ferocious beast, we see depictions of a softer side too. In the story of Androcles and the Lion, Androcles removes a thorn from a lion’s paw, and in return the lion spares his life at the Circus Maximus in front of the Emperor.
There is only one lion that I know to perfectly depict this balance of ferocity and emotion. That lion is Vayetse. His name meaning; ‘and he left’ in Hebrew. Vayetse, now eight and a half years old, lost his brother to a snake bite when he was just over one. He mourned for weeks until we had to intervene and found some lionesses for him to live with. Throughout his life, he has been the perfect balance between being authoritative enough to be respected, but gentle enough to be loved and adored.
There is only one photographer I know who could capture this balance, his name, David Yarrow. David’s images serve as great conversation pieces throughout the world. If you don’t believe that these pictures speak, I challenge you to go and view one up close. But even for this talented Scotsman from Glasgow, this was a big ask.
We discussed what we were trying to achieve and how on earth we were going to achieve it. Ultimately it was decided that an explosive running shot would be best. It would be shot at a low angle with nothing else in the frame to distract our eye. The lion would need to be running at camera and although David is a genius with his remote control work, he decided to operate the camera himself, which naturally added to the complexity of achieving this shot. It took a good two days to come up with this image. I’ve seen almost every picture there is of a lion running but I don’t think there is a picture of this calibre out there.
This photograph immortalizes Vayetse and it symbolizes what a lion is about. The essence of his being is captured by this one frame. One millisecond too early, or too late, and this shot would not have worked. An image of explosive power and focus is extremely difficult to achieve but we weren’t trying to get a nice safe picture of a lion. We were aiming for gold and that’s what we got.

I think that this big image was well earned. Gary Player’s adage that ‘the harder I practice, the luckier I seem to get’ carries a great deal of resonance every time I look at this photograph. How appropriate it was therefore that I took this image just 32 hours after celebrating Gary’s 80th birthday in Sun City, South Africa. We have become good friends over the years and I am full of admiration for his passion and commitment to the pursuit of excellence. In my lower profile world, this image of an adult male lion is as good as I can do, but by practicing and getting in wrong, I found the way to finally get it right. It is a lucky shot, but maybe I earned it. For one thing, I have never returned from a shoot dirtier or smellier in my life.

The African lion population may have fallen by 90 % over the last 100 years but there are still enough of them around in Botswana and South Africa in particular, for their behaviour to be well documented by photographers. It is not like capturing imagery of a snow leopard – seek and you will find. However, an encounter with a lion where the human party is sitting 80 yards away in a jeep is hardly groundbreaking work. Telephoto images of this encounter tend to be sterile, generic and fairly dull. There is no sense of the animal’s soul because everything is too distant – no one takes a portrait of a beautiful woman from a jeep 80 yards away and why should that therefore work with a wild animal? Proximity and no magnification contribute character and power to any portrait.

As Ansel Adams taught us, ‘the lens looks both ways’ and he understood that a standard or marginally wide angle lens offered the best conduit for offering some degree of spiritual immersion. The 35m lens is indeed by far my favourite portrait lens, but very few photographers even consider using this in wildlife portraiture – it is totally counter intuitive – especially with predators such as big cats. It is good to break rules and approach one’s work at 180 degrees to what is considered the norm – what is the point of being part of the crowd?

My approach – as many know – leans on the use of desk research, analysis, field support from the very best and then the employment of remote controls. On location I will often stand in a cage and leave the camera some 50 yards from me, to do the work. It is the opposite of a zoo – the lion is in the wild and I am in the cage. Many that know me might joke that it is not before time that I am caged, but this is not normal photography. However, it is my way and over the years, I have refined it again and again. Nevertheless the success rate is very low – it is not a job for those that require a diet of immediate and relentless gratification. If it were that easy there would be a few other images like ‘Gold’ knocking around.

Kevin Richardson is an icon in South Africa – much like Gary Player, albeit not in sport but conservation – like indeed Gary’s late brother Ian. The rhinoceros was Ian Player’s field of practice, whilst Kevin is the Lion Whisperer. I have worked with Kev for sometime now and we have built up a great mutual respect and friendship. To watch him work with lions in the same way that George Adamson did in Karo, Kenya all those years ago is quite astonishing. His talent is unique and quite remarkable. Kev works with very few photographers and I hope that continues to be the case – his huge fan club across the world suggest that there are no awareness issues here. Lions are dangerous to all but him and I have always worked rigidly within what he regards as safe – he has a responsibility and so indeed do I.

We work together now on a number of conservation fronts, but the most immediate goal is to put pressure on the legality of the practice of canned hunting of lions in South Africa. This medieval and dark practice is protected by the wealth of some South Africans who will fight to protect their profitable trade with trophy hunters. But in time, it will be banned and I am sure Kevin will be instrumental in this progression. Our legacy of our time on this planet does not currently look that great, but this would constitute a small victory.

‘Gold’ was my last picture of 2015 and perhaps it is also the most impactful I have taken in the year. The focus around the lion’s eyes is pin sharp and that lends huge power to the image. Without that precision, it would not be the big picture that people assure me that it most certainly is. Certainly no picture that I have taken has ever had such an immediate impact on social media.