Our latest concise guide to safari photography looks at the basics of photographing one of Africa’s most popular subjects.

Lions are undoubtedly one of the most compelling subjects to photograph on safari, but they can also be one of the most frustrating, spending most of the daylight hours asleep, often in long grass or dense scrub. For the first-time safari photographer, desperate to get their own version of a classic lion portrait, it’s easy to waste many fruitless hours waiting for an opportunity.

With a little knowledge of lion behaviour, and the help of an experienced photo guide, you can dramatically improve your chances of capturing some memorable images. Photographing lions does demand patience and persistence, but experience has taught us to focus our efforts on the most productive times of day and the most promising situations.

In this tutorial we’ll look at some of the basics of lion photography: we’ll revisit these charismatic cats in future ‘learning zone’ posts to consider particular aspects of photographing them in more detail.

Our top tips for photographing lions

• Lions are most active at night and spend much of the day sleeping in the shade. The best times to see and photograph them in daylight are early morning and around sunset.  Daylight activity periods can be longer in cool weather, so while overcast days may not offer the most attractive light, they can increase your chance of good lion encounters.  Don’t waste your time waiting for hours with sleepy lions in the middle of a hot day: rather bookmark their position and return in late afternoon.
• Male lions often patrol their territory in the morning.  As well as capturing shots of an animal on the move, be ready for when it stops to stare around, alert and magnificent. Watch for the animal to approach trees and bushes, first sniffing for the scent of other lions, then turning it’s back on the tree and urine-marking.
• In winter months lions often use roads to get about in the early morning: they don’t like walking through dewy grass.
• If you encounter a lion calling in the morning, it’s worth spending time with it, as it will be looking for other members of the pride. Reunions often involve lots of greeting, head rubbing and interaction.
• A lioness with small cubs will often cache them while going off hunting or socialising with the pride: caves, overhanging rocks, dense bushes are used, with the cubs moved periodically to new sites. If your guide knows where cubs are being cached this can yield good photo opportunities when the lioness returns: look for greetings, suckling and play.  But it’s vital not to stress the animals by approaching too close.  How close you can get depends on how habituated the lioness is to vehicles: a good, ethical guide will read the animal’s body language. If you’re self-driving, err on the side of caution and, as always, put the animal’s welfare first.
• If you encounter a single lioness walking with purpose in the early morning, she may be on the way back to cached cubs – regular low-pitched contact calling is a good sign.

• Don’t expect to photograph a successful hunt: they very rarely occur in daylight, though lions will opportunistically stalk unwary prey animals that wander too close.   You are much more likely to see lions feeding in the morning than the actual kill.  A large prey animal such as a buffalo or giraffe can keep lions occupied for several days, depending on the size of the pride.  If you do see a hunt and kill, consider yourself extremely fortunate!
• When lions are feeding, it’s everyone for themselves, so be ready for aggressive interactions, such as snarling and paw swatting. Males usually eat first, followed by lionesses, and cubs last of all, left to pick at the remains.  Try to avoid too much gore, though a bloodied face can look dramatic.  Usually it’s the action on the sidelines that makes for more appealing images. Once the animals are sated they will often rest nearby, returning occasionally for a top-up – be ready for them to rush scavengers such as hyena, jackals and birds of prey, which move in when the lions retreat.
• If the kill is small enough, or once it’s partly eaten and less heavy, lions will try to drag it under a bush, to avoid catching the attention of vultures (the sight of descending vultures can bring other competitors such as hyena).  Be ready for the action shot of a big lion dragging the carcass.
• In busy public reserves and national parks lions can become very habituated to vehicles and will often allow a very close approach. But photographing the top of a lion’s head from a high angle doesn’t produce an attractive image, and crowding an animal makes it less likely to behave naturally. Rather stay a little further back and use a longer telephoto, for a more natural angle of view and more relaxed behaviour.
• Occasionally, lions will themselves choose to come very close: on very hot days we’ve had cats come to lie in the shade of our vehicle, sometimes even leaning against the tyres. It’s hard to make a good image out of these situations, and you really don’t want to be leaning out of your vehicle. If you do find yourself at a couple of metres range, look for tight, frame-filling portraits with a telephoto, and perhaps detail shots of paws and claws.
• Be alert for action, it’s often sudden and momentary and there’s nothing worse than spending ages watching comatose lions, only to miss the fleeting moment of unrepeatable activity. Watch out for tell-tale signs of imminent activity: adults yawning and grooming, restless cubs looking for trouble, an unwary wildebeest wandering into view. Have your camera set for action, with plenty of shutter speed and high speed continuous drive, and if things kick off, shoot fast, rely on instinct and worry about composition and the technicalities later.
• Great lion portraits capture the majesty, energy and power of these impressive cats.  Look for an alert expression, head up, intense eyes (ideally with catchlights), ears pricked. Direct eye contact can be very powerful (lions have a way of making you feel very small when they stare at you), but so too can eyes fixed on a distant prey animal.

• Those classic ‘roaring’ shots of lions are actually yawning – a real roar looks like an animal straining against constipation!  The best time to look for roaring shots is late in the day, when sleepy lions start to wake up. It’s often a precursor to grooming and eventually to the animals getting up and starting to move.  Shoot a burst of shots to capture the best expression, you want the teeth fully bared and mouth agape, but it’s also good to be able to see the eyes (even closed). At the height of the yawn the eyes might be obscured.  
• Mating lions usually offer lots of photo opportunities, as they will mate several times an hour for three or four days – and then another male may even take over!  The mating itself, initiated by the flirtatious female,  is brief and not very photogenic, but at the climax the female often turns to swat the male as he jumps back to avoid her claws, with much grimacing and snarling on both sides. A front-on view often works best. The male usually dismounts on the same side each time, so you may need to adjust your position if you’re on the wrong side.  The mating couple will hang around a fairly small area for the duration, so you may be able to return on subsequent days, though their level of enthusiasm does diminish as the male gets tired.
• A long lens, such as a 500mm or 600mm, is OK for close-in portraits of lions, but for animals on the move, or interacting, we find our 100-400mm lenses are much more flexible.  Resting on bean bags or a mount is the ideal, but in practice it’s usually easier to respond to fleeting action by handholding, which is difficult with a large telephoto.
• Lions are mostly a convenient mid-tone, and normal matrix/evaluative metering works fine for frontlit or overcast conditions, but they do have white patches around the muzzle and under the eyes which are easily over-exposed. In bright light under-expose by a third of a stop (even two-thirds) and occasionally check your histogram.
• Lions are certainly one species that really benefit from golden light, but try to think beyond the classic portrait and look to exploit whatever conditions you encounter:  think silhouettes against sunrise or sunset, lions emerging from mist, a pride scattered on a plain beneath the billowing clouds of a coming storm, spotlit lions after dark…
• Never take your safety for granted: lions have a very efficient toolkit for spoiling your day.  Most lions accustomed to tourist vehicles will ignore your presence, but use your common sense and always follow your guide’s instructions.  When watching lions in an open vehicle, keep quiet, don’t make sudden movements, and never stand up, or you risk scaring away your subjects. Even the most relaxed lion can have a moody day, and young males can be very mischievous.  

Lion, Zimanga, South Africa

Even the most sleepy lion will occasionally sit up or stand to check around, perhaps triggered by a sound or smell. Work quickly, as the cat will usually slump back into repose after a few seconds. Be ready for other pride members to look up to see what’s going down.

Canon EOS 1Dx II, EF100-400mm at 263mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5, ISO 3200