Hanging Around

Canon EOS 7D, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM @ 100mm, Shutter Priority @ f/2.8 (1/800 sec), +2/3 EV, ISO 400, Handheld, JPEG from RAW, Cropped About 3% from the Full Frame

Subject: Pileated Gibbon AKA Black-Capped Gibbon (male)

Situation: Although tails is usually the challenge when it comes to getting everything of a Monkey into the frame, when it comes to Apes it's all about the limbs, especially with Gibbons, as they have the longest limbs of all primates.

Working at relatively close quarters at the zoo, the 500mm becomes impractical for anything but close-up portraits most of the time, so if I want to go for a full-body shot I have to switch to the 70-200. Only trouble is, with a shot like this it really needs to be seen as a large high resolution image, as the size of photos we can post up here loses a lot of the detail (a larger version can of course be seen on my website, in the “Primates – Thailand” gallery).

Anyhow, thought I'd share this one with you because, aside from the detail, I really like it as a picture. I'm particularly pleased with the way I was able to capture the image with such a natural setting, despite this having been shot in the zoo, and I'm really happy with the composition I framed through the lens (the 3% I cropped was a uniform amount from around the edges) instead of in post-processing, which seems to be the case for me most of the time.

While some might feel the surroundings are a bit “busy”, I actually like the hanging vines (even the ones that overlap the subject), as I find they add a lot to the sense of natural habitat.

Having said all that, more than happy to receive alternative thoughts and opinions :^)

P.S. Today is the last day of school for my daughter and ahead of us we have seven weeks of summer holidays, during which time we plan on making at least a couple of road trips to national parks here in Thailand. This being the case, it's unlikely I'll be able to find the time to post anything more up for a while, something I thought I'd mention just so it doesn't appear like I've suddenly dropped off the face of the planet ;^)