Nature Photographer Snapped Images Of Angry Lion... Right Before It Charged At Him

A Pakistani photographer has released images of one of the most heart-pounding adventures in his line of work.

Atif Saeed, a freelance photographer from Lahore, recounted the fateful day when he was almost mauled by the lion he was taking pictures of in a local safari park.

Saeed said when he spotted the wild animal from afar, he stepped out of his vehicle and quietly crept his way toward it. When he was just about 10 feet away, he carefully aimed his camera and prepared his first shot. The sound of the camera, however, caught the lion's attention.

"I was thinking — I must show the character and status of lion and this was the only way I could think of to achieve this," Saeed said.

By the time he was able to fire a few frames, Saeed was shocked to see the lion charging straight at him.

"The story finished in few seconds as the lion aggressively jumped towards me and I just about scrambled into my car," he added.

Looking back at the incident from a safe distance, Saeed said he laughed at the time, but he doesn't want to experience a similar encounter again.

Years after the terrifying episode, Saeed decided to share the snapshot of his fearsome foe with the public, calling it "The Ghost and the Darkness." The photographs quickly went viral, and the story has gripped netizens all over the world.