MonoVisions Photography Awards - International Black and White Photo Contest

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Photo © Laurent LALLEMAND

TITLE: The end of a giant

It is not yet 7am and the sun is struggling to warm the savannah. The light is gray ...

Three lionesses and a buffalo are lying, not far from each other. If they seem to sleep as cats know how to do, the eye not quite closed but not really open either, by polishing their toilet, the end of the paw then the paw behind the ear, or by chasing a fly a little too intrusive, he is worried. He instinctively knows he shouldn't stay there. So he stands up, wants to get on his feet and run away. Unfortunately, he only manages to take a few steps and falls back. He is seriously injured, column or pelvis, difficult to say. His eye is wide open. He is waiting.

The scene continues in an apparent calm ... Silence in the bush.

Without anything to suggest, a lioness rises abruptly and jumps on the rump of the buffalo which gets up not without difficulty. It is 7:48 am. She's fast. It is static, frozen on its supports. It feels like you are watching the first round of a boxing match; the observation and measurement of the value of the protagonists is essential. Nature has decided otherwise; the fight is rigged and the opponents do not fight in the same category.

.... The fight was long and trying, poignant and sometimes even hard to watch but the outcome was not surprising. Giant as we may be, we do not get up in these plains.

So is life in the Masai Mara.

AUTHOR: Laurent LALLEMAND FRANCE

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