Admit it. As a photographer, you’ve done stuff that the normal people wouldn’t do, just to get a shot. Photographers go into war zones, hang from helicopters, dangle off rooftops, trespass, and do any number of things that could get them seriously injured or killed because we want to document what’s around us. That is our art.
So when nature photographer Atif Saeed was facing a not-so-happy looking lion at a safari park in Pakistan, he did what many photographers would do. With the car door open, Saeed, who was seated on the ground, took a few precious seconds to grab a few shots and then scrambled to safety back into his jeep. Saeed tells Daily Mail, ‘I was thinking – I must show the character and status of the lion and this was the only way I could think of to achieve this. I was laughing at that time, but now when I think back about the incident I don’t think I would be able to do it again. It was a pretty close encounter.”
Lions are the second largest cat in the family Felidae, some weighing in at 500lbs. At the top of the food chain, the king of the jungle is a fierce and dangerous beast that you wouldn’t want charging toward you. Obviously, any time you are working around wild animals, especially ones that have really big teeth and can tear you to pieces, you should take extreme caution, not only for your own safety, but for the safety of the animals as well. That said, if you found yourself in a situation where a lion came at you such as the one above, would you take the shot or run?
See more of Atif Saeed’s incredible nature images on 500px, Facebook and Flickr.
CREDITS: Photographs by Atif Saeed have been used with permission for SLR Lounge. Do not copy, modify or re-post this article or images without express permission from SLR Lounge and the artist.
