Olive Baboon, Lake Nakuru, Kenya

[David Kennedy]

Olive Baboon portrait from the aptly named Baboon Cliffs overlooking Lake Nakuru, Kenya. This was hand-held, it was getting dark, and the IS motor had died in the first week of the trip, so I'm lucky it's at least in focus ;)

There's a part of me that wishes the LRH corner didn't have the rock ledge s(he)? was sitting on, but I couldn't crop it out and preserve the knee and wrist details that I liked. Thoughts?

Canon 5D, 400mm DO, 1/80 sec., f/6.3 @ ISO 640

[Alfred Forns]

Fully agree with the crop David Love the expression and bg !!!! What a sweet image !!!

[Maxis Gamez]

I agree with Al, David. Very nice image!

[D. Robert Franz]

Lovely light and BG. I would have either backed off a bit to show the entire baboon (if possible) or cropped even tighter (just below front shoulder) to emphasize the interesting primate face...

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Great capture David and I really like the crop as is. I feel the rock in the bottom right hand corner anchors the image. Beautiful work !!

[Jeroen Stel]

Love that pose and intense stare!
Well captured!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

[Fabs Forns]

I like your choice of crop and wouldn't worry about the rock. It's habitat.

Another option, that would give you two images for the price of one, is the crop suggested by Robert.

Happy New Year to you and your family!

[Bob Ettinger]

Love the face and while the crop is good another view might have been to back off as Robert suggested to get more of the paw and leg.

[Jasper Doest]

Hi David,

The rock doesn't bother me at all...as said it adds to the environment. I fully agree with Robert on his comments...I think a tighter portrait would work very well in the soft light. BTW, did you still manage to get all the shots you were after without the IS?

[David Kennedy]

BTW, did you still manage to get all the shots you were after without the IS?

It was a lot harder--I don't like pushing the 1D2n very high in ISO, and had become accustomed to shooting at 1/100 and 1/80 of a second at ISO 400 care of the IS. You don't really appreciate how much IS does for you until you lose it!

Without it, I had to work at ISO 800 more than I cared to do. It also required much more careful long-lens technique, so I applied a lot of upward pressure to the lens with my hand (the 400 DO works better if your hand is underneath, as opposed to the 500 where it makes more sense to have your hand on top of the lens, pushing downward) and pushed against the back of the camera with my forehead to eliminate vibrations.

Still, I came home happy. And Canon got $267 out of me when I got home for the replacement of the IS, so they were happy too :)