This picture of an adult male lion in attack went viral recently. And with good reason. The photographer, who shot the picture, barely escaped with his life.

Pakistani photographer Atif Saeed, 38, captured the spine-chilling image at a safari park just outside of Lahore in 2012 -- though the picture has only recently gone viral.

Talking about the making of the picture, Saeed said he had been granted permission to go inside the core area of the sanctuary to shoot a couple of images.

Saeed, drove his vehicle into the sanctuary and did what is clearly forbidden at any wildlife park in the world -- and is certainly, foolhardy.  

He got off the vechicle.

The photographer said after he spotted the lion, he got off the vechicle because he wanted to capture the "character and status of lion" and sat on the ground, just a few feet away from the animal.

The feel of the aggressive, approaching lion from the camera is something that cant be described, Saeed told ABC News. I was witnessing every small detail of movement that no photograph or movie can show.

Saeed said that as he pressed the camera shutter, the sound alerted the lion, and he became aggressive and charged.

Saeed managed to jump back into his vehicle (thankfully, he had left the door open) with a few seconds to spare.

It was a pretty close encounter, he recalled. I was laughing afterwards at the time, but I dont think Id ever be able to do something like that again.