"Action!" Giclée canvas print: 12" x 16", edition size - 100 s/n $675 unframed

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Paul Raney and his hunting party were out in the bush hunting lions with their dogs, when a stray lioness came bounding towards camp. There was an escari (soldier) on duty, defending camp, who took aim and fired at the approaching beast using his single shot Martini Henry rifle, and brought it down. However, he had only maimed it and was getting ready to reload when he heard a voice shout “Don’t Shoot!” It was J.C. Hemment a photographer and member of Rainey’s party. Hemment wanted to make a moving picture of a lion charging the camera, and saw this as his opportunity. While the lion lay injured some fifty yards away Hemment set up his camera ready to film. He needed to encourage the animal to charge so he asked one of the camp boys to throw a stone to attract its attention. It was at this time that Rainey and famed white hunter, Allen Black, returned to camp and noticed what was about to happen. Hemment reassured the concerned Allen Black that the lioness was harmless, as she had already been shot. Black watched skeptically as the lioness lashed her tail from side to side in anger. The boy threw the stone, and the lioness watched as it bounced passed her. In one swift movement she rose and looked directly at Hemment, who was now cranking the camera, and charged with such terrific speed that Black hardly had time to step forward, raise his gun and fire at the bounding beast. Black was a superb marksman and hit her squarely in the head and she went down nose first, the momentum bringing the dead animal to within four feet of Hemment and his camera. Visibly shaken by the experience, Hemment came to terms with what nearly happened and how foolhardy he had been. He swore never to undertake anything like this again unless one of the hunters stood by him with a gun.

This very day Rainey and his party bagged nine lions using their hunting dogs, mainly fox hounds, with a total haul of twenty-seven lions in six weeks.