Yesterday I drove about 50 miles south to visit the Ellen Trout Zoo, a small-city zoo in Lufkin. They had a nice selection of animals, but it was another HORRIBLE photography day for me. If I tell you this was the best photo I took out of about 180 and it was taken through a wire cage, then maybe you'll understand. I spent quite a bit of time dodging and burning trying to get rid of the wire horizontal lines in the picture, and considering what I started with I'm pretty pleased with this one. The wires are still visible but they're not really intrusive. This little guy was just so darned cute I couldn't resist the photo! The tamarins are among the smallest of the primates, weighing generally under one pound! The cotton-tops are only found in the northwestern forested areas of Colombia in South America. The problem with the zoo was the lighting (I have to blame my inadequacy on something). The entire facility is bathed in wonderful shade, looking much like a tropical forest. However, yesterday the sun was very intense and bright and penetrated the "forest" in little dabs all over the place, so I don't think I got more than 10 photos that weren't half shadow, half bright light. Maybe I can make a return trip on a cloudy day next fall or winter where I don't have to deal with streaks of sunlight through all my photos!
16 comments:
Nice hair style.
Nice capture and he is a cute animal- I've never seen one before.
Kathy, you are too self-critical...this is a very fine portrait. Light is so important in photography and you overcame the issue through effort. Love the paws and claws on this little guy.
This is a fine portrait, and shooting mid-day is the hardest thing to do. Actually I shy away from it, because of the very harsh shadows that you mentioned. Often times a simple filter (CPL Filter) can help immensely on a bright sunny day.
this guy wins cutest ugly face award. he is adorable and oh so cute/ugly at the same time. yesterday at noon, i put my camera on black and white, which i have never done before and snapped a few pics in the yard. i had what you were describing, lots of white light popping up in all kinds of places. the black and white took a few good shots that in color would have been horrible.
when this first opened, i thought it was a pekinese until i actually looked at it. :)
Nice! You did a great job. I know that had to be a lot of work. Can you imagine what a bad hair day would look like for this fella???
Well, you did an awesome job! Great photo!
Hate to meet this one in the dark.
Kind of an evil looking character to me, but I think your photo is great.
Cheers,
Jo
I think this turned out very well. I don't know anything about dodging and burning. Hmmm. I'll have to make a note to look into that!
I think you did an amazing job and there is no need to apologize. This is an adorable picture. I know what you mean about lighting problems at this time of year though.
My goodness, it looks like he was in the wild!
I´m with Kate Kathy! Don´t be too critical.
Try to just enjoy the moment without thinking on shutter speed and f-stop. Oh, did I write this sentence :-)
A face only a mother could love!
Oh my, that face is just precious!
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