Meet King Luke, king of the jungle at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. and his large pride of seven beautiful cubs. Two sisters, Shera and Nababiep are Luke’s lovely ladies who generously provided seven healthy cubs in late summer of 2010.

Scheduling a field trip January 2011 with my brand-new Canon 60d, my friend and I stumbled across the lion den and the awaiting crowd for the daily turnout of the full pride. Twelve o-clock hit and the large metal door slowly raised and the little cubs and their parents came bounding out ready to play.

I must confess though, that this first outing to visit the lion cubs was a complete photographic disaster. All of my photos were underexposed as I really didn’t know what I was doing. Within a week I was back down to visit the cubs once more in hopes of some better photographs.

The jubilance of the cubs didn’t disappoint. Harassing not only each other, but also their moms and dad the cubs played hard.

It didn’t take long for me to become completely addicted to visiting and photographing the cubs. Knowing that they would stay small for only so long, another photo field trip was in order.

Well, let’s just say that I’ve been quite a number of times and there are so many fabulous captures of these noble creatures at play. On one of these trips, I was given the unique privilege to go down into the bunker where the lion cages are to visit. This was indeed a special event as the only other people that had been allowed downstairs since the cub’s birth were the cast and crew from the Chronicles of Narnia movie. They had donated $1 million dollars to the zoo for the lion program and one of the cubs is named Aslan.

Given clear instructions to “stay behind the yellow” line, my friend and big-cat keeper Kristen Clark-Beatty showed how much these cubs adore her. Or perhaps the cub was wondering just how tasty her hand might be…

While I am just an amateur photographer easily outnumbered and outweighed by the Zoo paparazzi with their zillion dollar cameras, lenses and gimbal head mounts on fancy tripods, joining them made me feel as if I was playing in the big leagues.

After springtime 2011, it took me nearly the rest of the year to return to see how the cubs were doing. Visiting them in October was bittersweet. The cubs had most certainly grown, but by then the girls had been separated from the boys. Luke was now spending time with the young bachelors and greatly missing their female companionship.

The cubs, which are no longer cubs but are now considered to be “sub-adults” are nearing their second birthday and I’ve learned that the first two cubs, Aslan and Baruti will be sent to the Calgary Zoo where female sweethearts are anxiously awaiting their arrival. Their departure is said to be quite soon.

It sounds like its time for one more field trip to visit the cubs to give them my well-wishes for their new lives and new loves. I will most certainly miss them once they move on. But then again…Luke can get his girls back and start a brand-new pride !