I'm trying to start this little segment of Before & Afters here on the blog. I was inspired to do so by the photo featured in this one.

Wayco, a friend of mine, captured this scene on Christmas Day 2010 in East Africa (Specifically on a safari in Maasai Mara)  which proved to be rich with lions. I was flipping through the photos of his trip and this one really caught my eye. I made a comment that I'd love to edit it, and he sent it to me. Oh, happy day! I had at least 5 alternative edits and a black and white. But I chose this one to be my final edit choice to share.

The original photo stands well alone, with no editing, I'd like to make that clear. It probably wouldn't have caught my eye if the capture and frame weren't so fabulous. But I had another vision for it, and I wanted to see if I could make it happen.

I cropped it slightly and removed a few weeds around the lions. That's not something I'd normally do, but I decided to do it here. I honestly don't think it makes that big of a difference in the end. I adjusted the white balance, boosted contrast a bit, added a few different tones to warm it up a touch, and did a little sharpening.

The resized image your viewing shows the lions slightly sharper than I'd like to see, you'll just have to hang with me on that one :) I did use a couple of actions from Oh So Posh & Florabella in which I adjusted the opacity of layers or turned them off/on to my liking. Mostly, just my edits, but I want to give credit where it is due.

Nikon D90 with 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Nikkor lens; 10/8000 sec at f/5.6; ISO 1000.

Thanks so much for letting me edit this photo and feature it here, Wayco! Awesome capture :) If you'd like to view more of his photos from this particular trip, you can view them here. And I highly suggest it :)

I look forward to doing more of these. It really puts another dimension into editing for me because I wasn't there for the photo, so I'm seeing things only how my mind makes them be, which is kind of fun. I have someone going out on assignment and in the next couple of months I'll get to edit something... flowery :) But I hope to get another Before & After in before that one comes up.