One of the reasons I fell in love with Wildlife photography is because you can present an audience with an encounter they will likely never confront, at least one they wouldn't live to tell the tale from, like a male lion walking directly towards them, eye to eye, bristling with the raw power and confidence that comes only with young males. Giving a snapshot in time allows you to linger on the moment, taking in every detail, in a way that would be impossible in the wild.

Unlike many photographers, I never use a trap. I am only interested in photos that I have complete artistic control of. But that means no baiting and needing to be close to my subject, so a low angle shot of a lion walking towards the camera is no easy feat. A key part of wildlife photography is to understand the animals you are working with, not purely to turn up and shoot them. Not only does this help you to capture their personality but also to predict their next step and this gives you a fighting chance of composing and timing your shot well. Lions for instance are crepuscular, meaning they are most active in the early morning and evening, as well as nocturnal. In the day the heat overcomes them and they tend to crash out under a bush. Often in the mornings you will find a male out in the open roaring to the pride. But it is inevitable that, once the sun picks up, he will need shade. So to get a lion walking down the barrels you need to pre-empt this, work out what shade he will likely move to and position yourself in the middle and wait. With a bit of luck, your planning and patience will pay off, as it did here. Getting low was vital to add some bokeh to the foreground and improve the aesthetics of the shot. Using a monopod and a remote like a glorified selfie stick you can get your camera close to the ground without getting out - which as compared to the other photo would have been inadvisable. It's a high risk low return method but when it works it creates an imposing photo.