What Big Teeth You Have!
Nov, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo of a donkey's mouth at a zoo actually, "Living Treasures", located off of interstate 79 in Western Pa.Time
It was sometime in the early afternoon. I was walking around with my brother, and, due to the small size of the zoo, its pretty intimate and you can actually feed some of the animals.Lighting
Typically I don't shoot much in the afternoon because the lighting isn't the best/ is often not as dramatic as morning and evening shots. But, thankfully there was a bit of cloud cover and shade where i took this, that diffused the harsh direct sunlight, preventing severe shadows, and it allowed me to capture the textures of the fur whiskers and teeth nicely, which makes the image a lot more appealing.Equipment
I used a Cannon Rebel T3i with a regular 18-55mm 3.5-5 . Its an affordable kit and works well for walking around and capturing a variety of scenes in average day light situations, with a decent megapixel count.Inspiration
As I mentioned it is a smaller zoo, and so one of the charms that goes along with that is the ability to feed a large number of there animals. Due to the time of day, I think it was approximately lunch time in the animal kingdom and this particular mule was extra eager for some of the carrots that we had. I had fed it one already and the lips curling back in desperation to eat my sweet morsels had myself and my brother laughing, so the next time I had my brother hold the carrot just out of frame so i could capture the comical mouth before feeding him.Editing
Yes! I edited this photo in Photoshop, which is often where I'll edit an image if I am only doing one photo at a time. As I mentioned before the textures in this image is I think where a lot of the visual interest comes from, so I edited it in the Raw filter, and made it black and white so the subtle colors that were present didn't pose as a distraction, and the light/ subject matter became more important.In my camera bag
I only have my Cannon T3i body, and always have my 18-55 kit Lens plus the 55-250 kit lens ( In case I want to take more up close photos of wild animals or if I am shooting portraiture to avoid distortions. I also will typically have my prime Cannon 50mm 1.8, that I'll use in portrait sessions and occasionally In my street photos to make use of its fast shutter regardless of lighting conditions.Feedback
The spontaneity involved in shooting moments like this, demands a photographer to be on their toes, observant, and most importantly, have a camera. It may sound odd to mention the last one. But often times for photos like this, you cannot predict when an animal will do something, or act in a specific way (unless dealing with some highly-trained, YouTube famous animal), and thus it is imperative that you be ready...with a camera. I often times will take my camera with me to random places or at least carry it in my car so that when the life's beautiful moments present themselves I'm prepared to capture it. Also, I feel like i have to say, its important to have a sense of humor. Life is funny, if you let it be. If you are open to the world around you, funny little things like the way an animals lips curl back and flashes its teeth at you, can get you smiling. If you are prepared with your camera, you just might be able to capture those funny little moments and share them with someone else who other wise would have missed it.
