War paint
Apr, 2016Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo at the Phoenix Zoo in Phoenix, Arizona during a zoo walk to raise awareness for asthma. More than 26 million Americans suffer from asthma so I felt it was important to support the cause. The free zoo access, fun exercise and beautiful photo opportunities were all just a bonus.Time
Although it was only May it was unseasonably warm so the zoo walk was held early to avoid the intense heat. I had lived in the Phoenix area for 8 years and had never visited the zoo before this day! Turns out it's a pretty neat zoo. By the time I finished petting the goats, ripped my shirt from their teeth, made my way through the walk-in open monkey cage and down to the Mandrill baboon exhibit it was about mid-morning.Lighting
For this photo I used natural lighting because it's so readily available around these parts. This baboon was behind glass so I knew I didn't want to use a flash because that would cause the glass to look cloudy and would obscure the object of my photo - the colorful baboon.Equipment
I wish I could say I used a fancy DSLR camera with a 30.4-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, but in truthfulness, I used a sony G cyber shot point-and-shoot that has served me fairly well to this point. The zoom on my little sony keeps me in wonder every time, and the details of the photograph stay rather crisp even when shooting from nearly a quarter mile away.Inspiration
This baboon was so interactive with people from the other side of the glass, it was even posing for pictures! My goal was to capture it's unique character. However, when I look at the photo now I see a sort of sadness in it's eyes which makes me think that all the funny business I saw was the baboon trying to make the best of being caged.Editing
Yes, I did. I love the "defog" process in photoshop express. The original photo still showed some of my reflection in the glass, and the colors of the baboon didn't look as vibrant as in real-life. So I defogged the photo to remove my reflection and crisp up the photo, and I turned up the vibrancy until I felt it matched what I was seeing with my eyes.In my camera bag
When taking photos I normally I carry my sony point-and-shoot camera, a USB charging cord, and a USB charging outlet adapter. Depending on the occasion I will often carry a waterproof fuji point-and-shoot as well, because you never know when your husband might have to take a fly fishing photo and will accidentally drop the camera in the water.Feedback
It's all about timing, so often times I will put the camera on burst mode and take many photos of an active animal or other active scene (like the ocean). The good thing about digital shooting is that you can always go back and delete the photos that didn't turn out, but you never know, you may have caught a "money shot" in one of the burst photos. Remember too that for every one phenomenal photo there are about 50 that won't turn out well so don't be discouraged if your first few shots are not what you want them to be. Just try, try again.
