Spidermonkey yawning
Spider monkey at Hamilton Zoo yawning.
Spider monkey at Hamilton Zoo yawning.
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Jan, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo at Hamilton Zoo in New Zealand. These spider monkeys are in a covered enclosure in the rain forest section of the zoo.Time
The photo was taken around 1pm on a summer’s day.Lighting
There was dappled lighting from the trees and enclosure that fell on the scene. I got lucky with the sunlight striking the spider monkey on the face as it was yawning.Equipment
Canon 600D and Tamron 18mm-270mm f3.5-6.5 lens zoomed out to 270mm.Inspiration
Going to the Zoo with friends always offers an opportunity to capture some photos of the animals. I saw this Spider Monkey watching another one show off on the ropes the enclosure has. So I took a few photos of it and then it started to yawn. I fired off around 5 more frames to capture the behaviour. I choose this one where the spider monkey is mid yawn because it was the best representation of the animal’s behavior.Editing
I had the focus point in the middle so I put that on the spider monkeys eyes so that they were in focus. This allowed me to crop in tight around the yawning spider monkey isolating it from the distracting background.In my camera bag
My bag contains my Canon 600D, Tamron 18mm-270mm used around 90% of the time. A Canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens and a Canon EX430 flash.Feedback
I like to look what is happening at the center of attention for only a little bit and then concentrate on the people or things that a happening around it. For example when photographing this photo my friends where watching another spider monkey playing on the ropes. I got a few photos of that spider monkey and then turned my attention to the spider monkey in the photo. He was just sitting down and then I saw that he was about to yawn and fired around 5 photos of the spider monkeys behaviour. Being ready and trying to anticipate the behaviour of the animal or person when photographing them is such a big part of capturing a compelling image when you do not have control about what happens in front of you. Do not be scared about using burst mode so that you can capture the best image of the animal’s behaviour.
