A young one is the first frame. He sits in deep green grass with the body of a sibling soft behind him, eyes on the lens, ears forward — the kind of attention only paid to an animal you are sure will not move soon. The lens settles for what the lens has been given.
A second look, a beat on. The same young lion sits up further; the head has turned a few degrees; the picture has admitted more of the body. Nothing else in the encounter has rearranged itself.
Sat up — head turned, more of the body in.
Snuggled — the bodies stop being separate.
The tangle. Two of them snuggled together asleep in the stalks — head pressed against neck, paws crossed, the bodies have stopped being separate. The picture has nothing to negotiate; it can only watch.
Closer on the face. Eyes wide and direct on the lens, ears flared — the cleanest portrait the encounter offers, and the only frame in the morning that asks the lens for anything in return.
Close portrait — head-on, eyes on the lens.
Profile, head still up — watch quiet but kept.
A side angle. The body lies in profile, head still up and turned to the right; a sibling resolves as soft mass behind. The watch is quiet, but it is being kept.
Two of them together, both heads forward, the body of a third just visible at the edge of the frame. The family has briefly composed itself; the picture lets it.
Two together — a third just behind.
“The habit of a pride is to be more than one. The picture's habit is collection.
”
Field note
The pair sitting up — both heads forward.
The pair sit up together, both heads forward to the camera, the second a half-step behind the first — the most composed family frame the encounter is willing to give. A beat later both are flat again.
Side by side now. One head up, the other turned in toward her sibling — a small private composition the picture catches without insisting on it.
Side by side — one watching, one turning in.
Three resolved — the family in one frame.
Three of them now. Two lying together in the foreground, a third stretched out with paws up behind — the family briefly resolving into three across the same patch of green.
The last frame. Three sub-adults spread across pale green grass — one in the foreground, two behind, the family arranged in the same room the day has been quietly making the whole time.
Three across the grass — the day's last frame.
A small private encounter with three young lions of the Rongai pride on the same patch of green grass. Close portraits, the long sleep, the pair, and finally the family composed across the picture.
- Camera
- Canon EOS R5 Mark II · Canon EOS R6
- Lens
- Sigma 500mm f/4 DG OS HSM Sports · Canon RF 70–200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Z
