Making Gorilla faces

I photographed this Mountain Gorilla in Rwanda in the rain forest. The Silverback in this troop was just a youngster when Diane Fossey worked there. With that in mind I thought an aged film-strip look would be fitting. This particular youngster was enjoying chewing on a thick stem and making these expressive faces while we were less than 15 feet away. It was an amazing adventure!

Processed the gorilla in PS. Added the framing with a texture and removed parts of it with one of the eraser shapes using varying opacity.

Using a sequence like that in a triptych that looks like a film-strip was a great idea. The composition is terrific, and the gorilla stands out clearly even though its habitat is shown. Very nicely done.

Nancy, I love the expressions - they are priceless. The film-strip is a great idea:S3:

Hi Nancy, very nicely assembled. The expression in the third frame is priceless!

This is one cool triptych..just the right images for a 3 image sequence..gorillas one of my favourite animals...very well done

Very creative and fun image Nancy! I might warm up the background colors just slightly to let the gorilla stand out more. Love the framing!
We are leaving soon girl :S3:. Just got my muck boots!

Really like this series of facial expressions, Nancy...the large primates, particularly the mountain gorillas, have always been fascinating to me (my profile image on FB is of a silverback). I like Denise's suggestion about perhaps warming the background a bit...it would give additional depth and separation...but that's a minor point.

Thank you everyone! I did play around with the bkgd colors using saturation, etc. and never got exactly what I wanted. Then the texture muted it even a bit more. I did not want the bkgd detail to compete with the gorilla. Will try a bit different approach. This gorilla cracked me up and I'm glad to have found a way to use the image. As the commercials say..."Mastercard got me to Rwanda, gorilla faces...priceless!"

Denise, I have started to get my gear together also. Looking forward to a gazillion penguins!

This is wonderful, Nancy. Love the expressions :S3:

Wonderful composition and expression, Nancy. I am a big admirer of the Diane Fossey's work and it's fantastic that you could visit the rain forest!

Thank you, Maureen & Indranil. Seeing the Gorillas was one of my biggest desires and it was awesome! Once the guide finds the gorillas we were only allowed to spend a hour with them. In Rwanda there are 7 groups of gorillas that are habituated to people and the business of being guided to a group is very well organized. We were told how to act around the gorillas and how to make a moaning/groaning sound that supposedly means "don't worry, be happy" in gorilla-speak. The gorilla center operates 7 days a week and you certainly need a reservation. We were told that our fees go to the surrounding villages and I like that.