Morning Walk Across the Green

the story

This was my first trip to the Masai Mara, a place I had thought of for years as the Mecca of wildlife. We had barely started the morning's game drive when two massive male lions appeared, walking across open grassland. Our driver read the line they were taking and positioned us head-on, so the lions came straight toward the vehicle and eventually walked past us. There was very little to do except stay quiet and keep shooting. This frame is one of the two, mid-stride, the mane catching the soft morning light against a pale sky and a wide sweep of green.

the encounter

The light was still low and diffused, the sky washing out to a pale blue-green above a soft band of distant grassland. With the vehicle set head-on, the lion filled the centre of the frame as he closed the distance, his mane dark at the fringe and warm through the crown. I kept the composition simple, letting the wide green foreground and shallow depth of field carry the separation. A longer lens at eye level held him sharp while the background dissolved, leaving only the lion, the grass and that first-morning sky.