Lion Portrait, Okavango Delta, Botswana.

A shot from the Botswana series. Early morning with low angled, warm light, and this majestic fellow was out patrolling his territory. It’s tempting to use a fast lens at its widest aperture but stopped down a little gave enough depth of field to get all the lions face in focus. With an animal portrait, as with a human portrait, it’s critical to get the eyes sharp. With the eyes sharp we can sometimes accept that other features are out of focus, let’s call that “selective focus”, but if the eyes aren’t sharp then the image is destined for the rubbish bin.