I'm going to be blunt. I'm also not a national geographic photographer, but do publish mostly wildlife images in publications of all sorts, some with few copies up to some very broad 50-100k international distrabution. I dont consider myself an expert on wildlife photography, but I am an expert when it comes to my opinion.

I'm not going to run the guy down, not at all, each to their own I like to say, but, I dont care for his work. Never have. It's my opinion that he has skill and talent and puts them to use, but today, after a few years of seeing his work, I still try to figure out how or what there is to "like" about his stuff. If youre a wildlife photographer for very long, you begin to build a folder full of stuff like he publishes. To me, the subject is NOT enough to make a great image. I think he rests on the popularity of the subject and just has been able to build some interest by being a bit different, and offering a slightly different look to a lion. I just cant get into his style, I dont see more than slow shutterspeeds and sometimes poor additional lighting. I love blur and I love action and emotion, his stuff to me, is mostly just blur. I dont know what other's see in it.

Could you or someone enlighten me?

More power to him, he's well known and publishes a lot of images, kudos to him!

http://michaelnicknichols.com/