john lund

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lion And Tiger Fighting

A lion and a tiger face off in a ferocious fight in a stock photo about conflict, competition, aggression and dominance. Who would win in a fight between a lion and a tiger? Well, lions hunt in a pack and tend to rely on help to win conflicts while tigers are solitary hunters more used to one on one combat. That would tend to favor the tiger. Also, while both animals can typically weigh around 400 to 420 pounds...Siberian tigers can weigh up to 660 pounds! Yikes...Siberian tigers get the edge there!  A lion's mane offers protection for it's neck...so that should be factored in as well. In my unqualified opinion...it depends on the individual tiger and lion involved.  I have had a chance to work closely with both big cats for photography shoots...and let's just say either one, lion or tiger, deserves all the respect you have.

I asked one of the trainers which one of the big cats she worked with was more dangerous. She worked with both a tiger and a lion. She said the tiger was more dangerous because people viewed it more like a big kitten and understimated it while the lion had a more imposing presence. Interestling enough that was my impession of the two animals as well.  The animals pictured in this image are a lion named Truman that I photographed in my studio and a tiger, name unknown, that I photographed in Thailand at the infamous Tiger Temple (since shutdown by the Thai government after several maulings). 

A Tiger And Lion Fight

To create this tiger and lion fight image I used a tiger photographed in my studio, a tiger photographed in Thailand, a sky and mountain range photographed at Burning Man, and a foreground photographed on the island of Socotra off the coast of Yemen. The image took me longer than usual to compose in Photoshop...I spend three days fine-tuning the photo composite. 

This image illustrates concepts such as power in nature, competition, aggression, and the pursuit of dominance. A tiger and lion in a fight illustrates the idea of conflict, the fight for leadership, and the struggle between leadership styles. 

When I was arranging the photography of the lion in my studio I asked the animal trainer, Bow Wow Productions owner Stephanie Taunton, how much it would cost. She quoted me $5,000.00. I inquired how long I would get for the fee. She told me "As long as he wants".  That turned out to be about 45 minutes...but the shoot was well worth it. I managed to get enough lion photos to create a wide range of lion imagery. In fact, if you need a lion image we can create a custom one for you of a lion doing just about anything you can imagine.

We had a number of "rules" we were given for the lion shoot. Stephanie told me that during the lion's presence nobody on my staff should "separate from the herd". Okay...no problem!  We were told to make no sudden moves. She said I should get rid of all of the sand bags in the studio. When I asked her why she said he might think they were prey and he might have to kill us to keep the prey for himself. No problem...no sandbags!  She also pointed out that he can "spray" up to fifteen feet so we should cover up anything we didn't want marked.

Tigers Fighting In The Tiger Temple

To get the raw material of the tiger for my lion vs tiger fighting picture I traveled to Thailand where I had heard you can hang out with tigers in a Thai temple. Yep...turned out to be true! During out visit to the temple we got to bottle feed tiger cubs, hand feed chicken to adolescent tigers, and walk a full grown tiger. There were four of us who entered an enclosure where Tigers were running around playing and having a great old time with each other while attendents encourage there antics with rags on the end of bamboo poles...giant cat toys!  While I heard rumors that the big cats were drugged at the temple it sure didn't appear that way!