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2020-03-29: Lounging Lions

I think it is safe to say that I always want to be going on safari.  But with everything going on right now, I am really grateful I don’t have any upcoming travel plans.  I’d be very broken hearted if I had planned a trip for 6 or more months, which is what it normally seems to take, only to have to cancel it later on.  Instead, I’ve had my head buried in books, moving towards finishing up the two classes that I have been working within the next week.

Perhaps all the extra schoolwork I have been doing is the reason lazy lions appealed to me to edit today.  Who knows, but that is what I have to share today.

These were taken on several different game drives at different reserves; so if you haven’t been out with lions before, you can start to see a theme.  They do spend a lot of time lounging around and resting.  Something I am looking forward to next Sunday after I finish my exam.  I don’t think I have it in me to manage lion style lounging for 22 hours or more, but a relaxed afternoon certainly sounds nice.

Stay safe, wishing you good health and a positive week ahead.

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2020-03-23: Monochrome Monday

I call this one “Toes and Tails”.  A few close up images of lions and leopards from my last time out in the bush.

Wishing everyone a safe and healthy week ahead.

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2019-10-14: Monochrome Monday

For some reason, lions were calling to me today, so that’s the feature of monochrome Monday for the week.  These images were from a few different lion sightings on my most recent trip to South Africa.  I hope you enjoy, and wishing you a fantastic week!

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The Torchwood pride spent one day around Chitwa Chitwa, and we were fortunate enough to see the whole pride on the move, both in the morning, when this image was taken, and long after dark the same evening, where instead of trying to take pictures, I just sat back and enjoyed watching the lions walking under the light of a full moon.
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A lone lioness moving through the bush.
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An impressive male lion.
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2019-09-29: Photo Art – The Magnificent Seven

This post was originally going to be the big five, but I had images of cheetah and wild dog that I wanted to play around with, so the magnificent seven it is.

One of the reasons I wanted to focus on my photo art this month was to try and learn a bit more about Topaz Studio version 2.  I’ve played around with it a bit, and watched some tutorials, but for the workflow I am using, at this stage I will be sticking with version 1.  The issue that I was finding is I can’t get files to make a round trip using On1 Photo Raw.  I can get the file into Studio 2, and work on it, but the only option for saving is an “Accept” button, which with the workflow I am using, appears to do nothing.  I select it, but the file doesn’t get saved, exported or anything else.  New software versions are typically a bit buggy, so I’ll give it a few update cycles and then play around with it again and see what happens.

One of the great things about photo editing tutorials is getting the little reminders for things that are outside of the normal workflow.  In this case, the reminder was to play around with blending modes when using AI Remix, Impression and textures.  For example, the cheetah image below was edited using (amongst other tools) a filter in AI Remix called Neon Rise.  But changing the blend mode from normal to luminosity kept the amazing texture that the filter offered, but eliminated the wild and crazy colours for something far more subdued, and suited to the image.

I hope you enjoy the selections below.  Wishing you a fantastic week ahead.

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You can find some of these images in the Photo Art section of my gallery.