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jenbmama
September 24, 2012
awesome sloth portrait! I had no idea what a sloth face looked like, I can imagine their shaggy bodies and long-clawed toes hanging from a tree branch - but this is an awesome capture of a little-seen face in great light :)
snowdon
March 29, 2013
I love these animals, they are so misnamed but they do not complain. Good image showing feeling. Voted
clareparsons
August 15, 2014
just wonderful. the expression is stellar. made me think of muppets in my childhood....
RoadKing1985
January 20, 2015
Where did you take this pic!? WOW!? So Awesome! I grew up with these beautiful survivors in Panama!:) Beautifully captured. He looks like he is about to direct a concert haha:) Thanks for sharing!:) Good luck in contest:)
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at the Buffalo Zoo.Time
We like to get to the zoo at opening usually mid morning.Lighting
Since the sloth is more of a nocturnal animal, the lighting in this exhibit is very difficult to get a good hand held shot. Who wants to drag a tripod through a zoo? I just happened to be there when the sloth had his eyes open and was staring up into the only real light in the exhibit. I shot the photo with an aperture of 4.5 at 1/80 with my ISO set at 3200.Equipment
This was taken with my Pentax K7 and my 80 to 320 Pentax lens.Inspiration
I always get a season pass to our Zoo and go there often. This sloth is usually up in his corner under the spotlight but is usually curled up and asleep. This is a shot I have been trying to take for years and just happened to be there when he had his eyes open.Editing
Post processing included a crop, sharpening and playing with the lightness/ contrast settings in Photoshop CS5. I also resized the photo and minimized the grain present from the 3200 ISO. This is one of my most favorite zoo pix.In my camera bag
When going to the zoo I usually take my entire bag. This consists of my Pentax K7, a kit lens and a medium length Tamron lens. I also take a 100 mm Pentax macro, which is the perfect length for portraiture as well, my 80 to 320 Pentax zoom and I now take a recently acquired Pentax fixed 200mm f2.8 lens - a perfect lens for zoo shots under any lighting conditions.Feedback
As always my advice to zoo shooters is to take what the animals give you. Don't visit with any preconceived shots in mind. By doing that you close your creative mind, you force your creativity into a box, and you will more often than not miss that one great shot that makes a perfect day of shooting. Not every animal is cooperative every day of the week.