No boys allowed in this tree-house!

Werribee’s Open Range Zoo was down to just two lions - a mother and daughter - but they are part of a world-wide breeding programme. They have a new male lion, currently serving out a month of quarantine - he’s isolated to the back reaches of the lion enclosure. So right now the two females get to keep their tree-house as “no boys allowed”. It will be interesting to see how their attitude changes. Maybe we’ll hear the pitter-patter of little paws?

This was shot with the Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM II at 70mm, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 125, on the Sony A1.

The original image had a reflection on the glass between me and the lions, so I cropped the image down to 3717x2478 pixels. It also had a gloomy grey background of drab overcast sky, so I tried a new feature of PhotoShop (I have a new computer for PhotoShop, and this was my first excuse to use it!) - the “Replace Sky” feature. It’s astonishingly easy to use: in the Select menu there’s an entry for “Sky”, and it works, even on dull grey overcast sky! Then the Edit menu contains an entry for Sky Replacement. I refrained from choosing a sunset.

What do you think?