Truly a trip of a lifetime for me to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda . Bonus was seeing a Mountain Gorilla family with juveniles. I was hoping to get a shot with eye contact, but this juvenile was more interested in grabbing leaves than he was in me and my camera.
Any
Canon 7D w/100-400mm. 1/1000 sec @ f5.6, ISO 5000, Hand held
Is this a composite? No
I can see why you like this intimate shot, Marc. I like the way that it is framed behind the leaves and yes, you can see that it is looking right past you. Makes me wonder what was behind you!
Marc, this is an excellent look at this youngster. I like the expression, the bit of hand, and all slightly soft green surroundings.
Marc - It’s a very good image. I had the pleasure of visiting two different mountain gorilla families in Rwanda a couple of years ago. It was an awesome experience. In the approx 500 images I shot in those two days I only had one infant make eye contact with me. It appeared to me that they wouldn’t make eye contact but I was always in their peripheral vision - maybe a gorilla thing. One thing I did in post that you may want to try is darkening (a little not much) the bright areas in the face and on the hand - takes off some of the glow.
Thanks Gary. I think he was trying to work out his hand-eye coordination grabbing the leaves in front of him. He didn’t quite have the hang of it, but it was fascinating to watch.
Thanks Dan! I actually darkened those areas a bit. At first I had them even darker, and then brought them back a bit.
Beautiful and expressive portrait of this youngster, Marc.
