The Day a Lion Named Joseph Ran Straight at My Camera

It was a foggy fall morning in Northern California, 1995. Five or six photographers stood huddled together in a field, cameras up, waiting for a hungry African lion to come running straight at us.

That morning gave me one of the best images I ever created as a freelance stock photographer. Here's the story behind it.

That year I made a decision to photograph wild cats at a captive location in Northern California. The main attraction was their African lion, trained to run on command and hold other poses for the camera.

His name was Joseph.

We never got to pet him, but he was pretty tame and used to people. Joseph had worked in movies, commercials and photo shoots for a long time. If you ever saw a lion walking through an office in a TV commercial, that was Joseph too.

We had Joseph for one day. As was typical in California, the morning was foggy and overcast. To a photographer, that's a gift. Direct sun throws harsh shadows, while a gray sky wraps everything in soft, even light.

The trainer walked Joseph out into the field on a leash, which was really a heavy chain, about 60 or 70 yards away from us. In his hand was a sizable chunk of meat: Joseph's breakfast. Joseph was hungry, and he was very interested in that bait.

The trainer would throw the meat, and Joseph would come charging across the field toward the five or six of us photographers huddled together. They did this five or six times, maybe more. I just kept shooting, trying to get as many great running shots as I could.

Here's the funny part. I don't remember this moment happening at all.

It was only when I got the film back that I realized it. On one of those runs, the trainer's throw landed maybe five or 10 feet right in front of me. That meant Joseph wasn't running past the group. He was running dead on, head on, directly at me.

I don't recall any other photographer getting a shot like that. Maybe they did, but I never saw one of their images in publication that was as good as mine.

I was stunned when I saw it on the Fuji slide film, back from processing within a day or so of the shoot. Joseph, the African lion, running straight at the camera with a locked-in look that isn't going anywhere but directly at you.

It was truly remarkable, and it's a very precious image to me. It took a lot of money, a lot of dedication and a lot of practice beforehand. Six or seven attempts, and I came away with one incredible image.

So much of my photography was designed to convey a concept, a strong emotion, or a commercially useful idea that would give the viewer a distinct reaction.

In this case it's majesty and fear: the king of the jungle coming right at you. It's not an image you glance at and move past. The lion is coming head on, so it forces you to look.

That was my goal back in those days, when I was learning conceptual photography and how to put real power into a photograph. This was one of many images that did exactly that.

A hungry lion, a foggy fall morning in 1995, and a piece of breakfast that landed, almost miraculously, right in front of me. It turned out to be one of my best images of all.

Decades later, Joseph is still running straight at me. That image now hangs as a poster in my home office.

I still have a strong interest in photography and conceptual images. These days, though, I use blogging to share what interests me: the projects that are near and important to me, and anything else I want to talk about.

I've found this blogging format really powerful. It costs $25 a month, and that covers the web hosting and all the details of having a blog. I even get to use AI, like I did for this post, to turn my rough notes and voice transcription into a post that makes sense and sparks enough curiosity that readers want to read it and comment. I appreciate that so much.

And here's what makes it unique: it pays an 80% commission when someone else wants to blog too.

So I want to encourage you to consider having a blog of your own. It's extremely simple, it includes everything you need, and it lets you monetize your voice: what feels important in your life and what you want to share.

When other people like the idea and join through your affiliate link, you make $20, which is 80% of the $25. If 10 people started blogging after getting the idea from you, that would be $200 in commissions every month, while you pay just $25.

The button below shows you how it works. Full disclosure: I earn a commission if you join through my link.

Here's to monetizing my voice, and to my encouragement for you to monetize yours.