This Photo of an Angry Lion Was Shot Just Moments Before It Charged

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Photographer Atif Saeed captured this intense photograph of a male lion growling at him back in 2012 in a safari park in Lahore, Pakistan. The photo was captured just moments before the angry cat rushed at the photographer.

Saeed was driving through the park in January 2012 when he spotted the lion a short distance away. He then got out of his car and began creeping toward the lion with his Nikon D4 and a telephoto lens.

Once he got close enough to have the lion fill his frame, Saeed began snapping some photographs at 500mm, only to have the lion focus its attention on him. The photographer quickly jumped back into the open door of his car and slammed it as the lion charged aggressively at him.

The photo above is one of the “keepers” he left the safari with that day. “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,” Saeed tells the Daily Mail.

Saeed has since titled the photograph “The Ghost and the Darkness.”


Image credits: Photographs by Atif Saeed and used with permission

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