Friday was Wellington Zoo day and the weather was absolutely perfect. Warm, sunny and packed with enough excitement to share several selfies over the coming weeks. Lions, Otters, Giraffes and Ring Tailed Lemurs were out for the crowds that slowly filled the Zoo.
AND LIONS!
Today’s portraits are a bit special. I have visited the zoo several times in the past 12 months but seen very little of the two lions. Usually they’re napping, or hidden from view but we arrived at the lower viewing area in time for a lady to tell us that she overheard a keeper saying that they were about to ‘Let the Boys Out”.
And out they came to enjoy a meal of rawwr meat. You can imagine our excitement as two huge lions prowled out of their night time enclosure, as only a big cat can. Long loping strides packed with lion confidence.
I managed some closeups of one lion enjoying it’s meal but, as the reinforced window was badly scratched (due to lots of enthusiastic viewers in the past), I had to manoeuvre around the scratched centre of the window. Then we rushed upstairs to the outside viewing balcony were I got the second full-length shot you see here.
It was worth it though. I managed a wonderful closeup which I am really happy with and a sunny lion enjoying a meal. Like every photographer I took lots of photos to get the ‘one’ portrait I really liked and, thanks to Luminar Neo’s ‘Enhance‘ AI tool I was able to remove a lot of the damaged window texture.
Me, Use AI? On this occasion I confirm a definite yes. The Enhance tool is not one I would use on a image I am considering entering for a photographic competition as AI is emphatically prohibited but for a special portrait where circumstances were not in my favour it has been successful ,as you can see in the first portrait.
Here’s the lion closeup before I enhanced it, and a below that image that shows you how scratched the window is.
Beeuteefull Lion Selfie!!!! 444 pawss up Miss Marjorie!
~~~head rubss~~~BellaDharma~~~ an ((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
What a great Selfie Marjorie😻Double Pawkisses for a Happy Week ahead🐾😽💞
Great close-up!
Wow, those are brilliant, Marjorie. We always love seeing the big cats!
I love seeing my big cousins! ~ Murphy
SO beautiful and majestic! (Hope you got my email about your surprise package! Thank you SO MUCH!!!)
Great shots. Such a handsome boy.
That is a very handsome and very big kitty!
Brian’s Home
think my comment’s off in space ~~~~ awesome photos Marjorie, I am a HUGE fan of all big cats. thanx for sharing !!! ♥ ♥♥♥ ♥ mackerull says; HI DAD !!
am a HUGE fan of all big cats, thanx marjorie for sharing these photos !! they are AWESOME♥
mackerull says : hi dad 😉 ♥♥♥ =^..^=
Great photos. We haven’t tried AI to fix photos.
Wow, your fixes sure made a big difference!! Wonderful to see these huge ‘kitties’!
Amazing pictures – whatever you had to do to fix them!
Fabulous lion pictures! Great work fixing the scratches! I don’t mind the use of AI to touch up a picture in the ways we use the old photo editing programs.
You did a good job on removing those scratches. The photos of those magnificent animals are lovely, particularly the second one.
Both pictures are stunning! You did really well with the scratched glass image. Such a lovely close up.
ERin
Wow, these came out great! I’m beginning to think AI, like money, is a good tool and a bad master.