A while ago, I was commissioned to write a book that accompanied the ITV television series Lying Country. One of the chapters was about how Lions Hunt and I needed an image. Illustrated the problem. Waas lions typically hunt at night, so getting a suitable photograph was a challenge. One night I went for a walk in the bush, and at one point I stopped and looked up at the starry sky that got me thinking about star trails before my mind went back to solving the puzzle of photographing lions in the dark. My mind was toing and froing between lions and star trails and star trails and lions when I had a moment of inspiration lions hunting under star trials. Now there's a photograph has never been taken before. I headed back to camp, grabbed a sheet of paper Onda along the top, wrote the caption Lions hunting under star trails and started to fill in the blanks which led to this. You'll recognize this from the last lesson in which I described the theory of visualization. Now I'm going to show ...

you exactly how I use it, practically to get from this to this, to create this image. First of all, I have to figure out what equipment I was going to use now at the time my cameras with Nick on D three. So that was a given, but I had a choice of lenses. The large expanse of sky is key in this image. Effectively, it's a landscape with a lion in it. So I settled on a lens that would give me a wide angle of view. On on my drawing, I wrote 24 millimeter lens. My next thought was exposure. Because star trails require long exposure. I had to calculate how long I could keep the shutter open on my D three before noise generated by the heat of the sensor degraded quality beyond a usable level. Now this took me three nights testing various exposure combinations before I settled on 10 minutes. Next on my list was focused on the question. How do you focus on the subject when you can't see it? A detail you can't know from the image alone is. When I was taking the photograph, it was pitch black. In fact, it was so dark I was standing a meter from my tripod and I couldn't see my tripod now. The answer came from the distant past. In the old days, before auto focus action photographers would use a technique called Zone or focusing the idea being you don't have to focus on the subject. The subject simply has to be within the camera's zona focus, which is better known today as depth of field. I simply had to know which lens aperture on the 24 millimeter lens would give me depth of field from infinity, which is where the stars are toe around 10 meters, which was about as close as I wanted the lions to bay. So, using a depth of field table I found on the Internet, I came up with the answer and wrote it down after 11. Finally, I had to work out how I was going to light the foreground, which, remember, was pitch dark. Now the obvious answer was flash, but the pressing question waas. How many flash units did I need? I knew I wanted to use large diffusers to soften the point light from the flash, so I added this to my calculation. On day after doing the math, I settled on two I now knew before even headed out with my camera how I was going to compose my image, what equipment I needed. The lighting situation on what setting, though, is going to use. I waited for six days and then I went in search of line. When I found them, I set my tripod on the ground. I turned off the torch and I simply press the shutter. Now. In the 1st 10 minutes, nothing happened. So I press the shutter again and awaited. After eight minutes, I heard the lions move. I paused a moment, and then, at a point that I felt right, I manually triggered the to flash units, which I was holding above my head. The only bit of luck in the entire shot was the lion walked into frame. If it walked the other way. Well, I would just have one line in the picture. As in my original drawing, you may wonder why I waited six days specifically well. In order for this image to work, there had to be no moonlight falling on the foreground because that would have created a ghost image of the lions. The reason I waited I was six days from the one day a month The moon doesn't appear in the night sky. No

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Chris Weston

Chris Weston became a professional wildlife photographer in 2001, changing his career to follow instead his passion for what he describes as “the extraordinary behaviour of animals”.

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topics covered in this class

Beginner Fundamentals Digital Photography

Ratings and Reviews

Edmund Cheung

Perhaps the style of presentation and simple, short, and direct messaging does not "jive" with some; but others may really love this. Yes the production of each episode is stylized and perhaps a bit formal (like a TV Show?), but there is something to be said about it. Perhaps this is not meant for professional photographers? I think of myself as decent amateur / high level photographer. I found lots of great nuggets of wisdom and inspiration from this. Especially when I an in a rut for creativity. Yes I have heard all these concepts and ideas before. BUT it is always great to hear and see a different way of presentation and voice. Please do NOT take the naysayer reviews as the end all. You should judge for yourself and watch a few episodes. If the style and content click for you, I would highly recommend this course.

Abdullah Alahmari

Thanks a lot to mr. Chris Weston This course is great and It is a 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 course for me. Beside the other course ( mastering the art of photography ) both courses are Complementing to each other and highly recommended.

Kai Atherton

While I am perhaps more advanced in my photography then this course. It is always great to be able to go back to fundamentals and remind ourselves of the basic principles, and even camera function. I thoroughly enjoyed this course and Chris's other. It is a great motivational jumpstart when lacking fresh creative idea's.

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Lions Hunting Under Star Trails

Lions Hunting Under Star Trails

Lesson Info

13. Lions Hunting Under Star Trails

Lessons

Your 10,001st Photograph

Camera Gear

Piece of Gear We Always Forget

Be a Storyteller

Finding Ideas For Photography - Know Your Subject

Cae Study - Why Are Zebras Black and White Striped

Photograph What You Love

See the Extraordinary in Ordinary Things

Have an Opinion

See With a Child’s Eyes

Tell Your Story

Find a Needle in the Haystack