Field Notes
The lion is the one big cat that lets you into its social world. Where leopards and cheetahs are usually seen alone, lions are family — and much of what I find worth photographing happens between them: the greeting of two females, cubs testing a patient adult, a male lifting his head at a distant sound.
All of my lion photographs come from the Masai Mara in Kenya, across the golden grass of the late dry season. Mornings and evenings are everything here; in the flat midday light the prides simply sleep. I have learned to wait through those quiet hours for the few minutes when the light turns and the pride begins to stir.
A lion at rest can look almost ordinary. Then it stands, and the whole plain seems to reorganise around it.
