Beauty and The Beast R/W
by Ashley Vincent
Canon EOS 7D, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM + 2x Extender II, Subject Distance: 11.9m, AV Priority @ f/5.6 (1/640 sec), ISO 250, Handheld, JPEG from RAW, Cropped about 25% from Full Frame
Thought I'd give you a bit of a break from me primates for a little while ;^)
Bangkok is a fascinating place for any number of different reasons, and one I'm sure not many that visit the City of Angels are even aware of has to be the enormous Water Monitors that can be found roaming freely across paths, grassy areas but mostly close to or in the waterways of Lumpini Park, the largest park of the capital.
The waterways of the park don't appear to be connected to any of the klongs (canals) that snake through parts of Central Bangkok, so I guess they're manmade, and I also assume that at some point years ago the Water Monitors were introduced by people bringing them in. Whatever the case, in no way would I consider them captive animals in light of their unimpeded free-ranging behaviour within this park and, in fact, I've heard stories that on occasion one or two of the more adventurous have actually sauntered through the gates and found their way onto the main road, though usually returning of their own free will quickly enough back to their comfort zone within the boundaries of Lumpini Park.
Having discovered them by chance myself one time while I was up there looking for interesting birds to photograph, I've returned at least five or six time spending upward of four hours a day trying to capture the most compelling images of these magnificent creatures. As you might imagine, I have something of a collection by now, and I'd like to share with you some of my favourites.
This first one I came across just outside the entrance of the park itself (part of the waterway skirts the outer perimeter of the park) before heading in. Back then, before I had laser surgery on my eyes, shooting as I used to without glasses, I could only make out movement and fairly large outlines of potential subjects, so all I really recognised was another opportunity with my beloved Water Monitors.
Looking through my viewfinder I could see something that appeared to be a leaf attached to this one's head, and my first thought was, “Well, if it doesn't look great on my monitor perhaps I can remove it in post-processing.” Needless to say, I was over the moon when I got back home, saw the image on the big screen, and realised that “leaf” had magically transformed itself into a beautiful butterfly – LOL :^p
Happy as I am with this, I'll be just as happy to receive your critique and possible suggestions, and of course any sort of comment is always appreciated, thanks in advance :^)
Comments
21 commentsKen Archer
I appreciate your opinion in reference to the crop, and the reason why I chose to leave as much space as I did was because I wanted to leave plenty of area for the Monitor to look into ... as well as sufficient area for the Butterfly to fly off in if it so chose to do so ;^)
Seriously, I tried various crops but anything tighter than this seemed to be heading much too close to that box-style crop that, IMHO, works well about as often as ponytails worked worked out well for all the guys that tied one going back a decade or so ago - LOL ;^)
Always good to have alternative opinions though, so thanks again to you both :^)
Wonderful detail in the reptile skin here, and the butterfly addition is excellent - what luck!
I'd personally tine down the BG a bit.
Cheers!
Sandy
BTW ever thought of using an Angle finder to aid in the low POV?
TFS
Steve
John: As Steve suggested, I reckon the Monitor and the Butterfly were totally oblivious of one another ;^) Bearing in mind I didn't realise that the Butterfly was actually there until I returned home and saw the shots in large, having already taken a fair few I backed off and went in search of more Monitors inside the park; from experience I know there's anywhere between 30-50 of them (perhaps even more!), so I thought I'd go see if I could catch any in more interesting poses or positions ... now that you mention it, I'm sorry I wasn't able to discern the Butterfly at the time, as I think I would have waited to see if it made good it's escape ;^)
Sandy: I agree the BG does appear a little bright, however, the colour of the grass as I recall was even brighter in the sun, and when I did try to tone it down it seemed to make the whole image look darker but not necessarily better, hence I left it like this.
Steve: Six months ago, when I fully committed myself to working toward realising my dream of becoming a professional wildlife photographer, I committed myself mentally and (though with a few reservations of my wonderful yet mildly concerned wife!) financially as well. I purchased a whole host of equipment I believed I would be able to make good use of, although six months later I must confess there are still a few of those pieces I've yet to even try out, and one of those is the Canon Angle Finder C ;^.
Thanks for reminding me, I think it's probably high time I at least gave it a whirl ;^)
Would have gotten to this earlier today, but I had another schedule to keep with Mother Nature; I believe She's promised me some near perfect BIF shots from time to time just as long as I get out there and practice as often as I can ;^p
OK, with so many of you suggesting the same thing, I'd be a fool not to give it a try ;^) Hopefully this crop is close to what you all seemed to think would work better ... actually, now that it's done and I'm looking at it I have to admit it looks better to me ;^)
Thank you all once again for your valued input :^)
Pleased you did the repost.
Steve
cheers
Steve
Steve: Wish you would'a mentioned that highlight above the nose and to the right of the butterfly before ;^p I managed to work that out with the Patch Tool and then Surface Blurred the same area to smooth it out, but for some reason I can't seem to save the changes, perhaps because I made them on a Virtual Copy from Lightroom in PS, so I can't show you the final result, but thanks for pointing it out and rest assured that it does indeed make a difference, thanks buddy :^)
I would imagine there's hundreds of them inhabiting the canals within Bangkok, pleased you got to see one and that I could enlighten you as to what it was ;^)