The Makings of a Yawn
by Ashley Vincent
Canon EOS 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM, Shutter Priority @ f/4 (1/320 sec), 0 EV, ISO 400, Tripod, Cropped about 40% from in total from upper and right-hand edges for more pleasing composition
The subject you see here is known by at least two names that I'm aware of: Pileated Gibbon and Black-Capped Gibbon. The term “pileated” is more usually associated with birds (a species of Woodpecker would be one example) to describe an area that stretches over the head from the nape to the bill with a distinctive covering or crest … nope, I'm not that smart; curiosity compelled me to look it up ;^p
Upon entering our local open zoo, one of the first things you come across are four small islands with trees and grass and a kind of a moat that encircles them; I wouldn't imagine it would take too much for the otherwise free-ranging Gibbons that inhabit these islands to leap over the narrow stretch of water and make good their escape, but they seem perfectly content where they are.
Perhaps part of the reason is that each island is home to only one pair; three couples are of the opposite gender and two ladies – quiet possibly sister – have residence on the fourth island.
I can't afford to buy you all tickets over here to see how delightful they are for yourselves, so best I can do is introduce you to them by way of my photos ;^)
This first one is the male of the species, and I caught him just as he was reaching the apex of his yawn …... something I haven't shared with you before, but I have this innate ability to telepathically communicate with many animals, and often, while photographing them, I tell them stories of my life, hence, I have a stack load of yawning shots in my collection – LOL ;^p
Critique and comments are not only welcome but thoroughly appreciated :^)
Comments
12 commentsBefore reading your commentary I thought perhaps we had a threat display here and that the image was the beginning of a dramatic interaction! But regardless, your shot does a great job of showing the teeth and the eyes (with their nice catchlight) are another nice highlight here. I think John's comment re: the black running off the frame is valid - one of those perfect world things. Another "in a perfect world" comment would be my wish that the brown stick directly behind the head would vamoose...but no fault of your's there.
Cheers...thanks for sharing this...
Brad
John & Brad: I completely agree with your "perfect world" preferences ;^) As it happens, removing the brown stick directly behind the head in the upper-RH corner of the frame wouldn't be that much of a problem for me, however, IMO, the absence of that would direct one's eye to the smaller piece of the same stick that leads out of the back of the subject's head toward the LR-hand corner of the frame. And looking at those fine hairs are almost fused to the stick, I seriously doubt I'd be able to remove that part of the stick without making a botch-job of the hairs.
Vincent: Whatever it takes to get people to look at my photos - LOL ;^p As to your other observation, I have to admit that in situations like this the temptation is always there to make out to the viewer in one way or another that the gapping mouth was more of a primal scream than the far less dramatic fact of it being no more than a yawn but, aside for being a stickler for the truth, it was far more fun working with the yawn concept for an amusing byline than what I can imagine it would have been looking for the humour in drama ;^)
Lon: I agree with your thought regarding the brightness in the UL-hand corner, and I did actually try to reduce it, but to my eye this then accentuated the bright area running along the subject's right arm, which was virtually impossible for me to darken without showing obvious signs of the adjustments in the hairs of it's arm.
Thanks again one and all for taking the time to contribute your thoughts :^)
A great shot all together.