Theme: Bonnet Macaque

[Nancy Bell]

This for any of you who are dentists! I photographed this Bonnet Macaque on my recent trip to southern India. The Bonnet Macaque is endemic to southern India and is related to the Snow Monkeys of Japan. This macaque was playing hide & seek behind a rock with me. He would duck down and then suddenly reappear. I know that faces like this are meant to be aggressive but I did not feel he was all that serious about it. Unfortunately I do not have any more space on the bottom and missed the entire lower jaw by a sliver. It was hard to predict just how much he would jump up and reappear each time.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 400 f4 DO IS, 1/320, f6.3, ISO 800, exposure comp -2/3.

Comments and critiques most appreciated.

[Loi Nguyen]

Nancy, this is quite a close up image! A real head shot for sure. You get incredible details here even inside his mouth. The only thing I would wish for is a little more DOF or shutter speed as i see his up turn nose and jaw a bit soft. Missing the bottom jaw is too bad, but it is not a deal breaker I think. TFS. Loi

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Nancy - What a fun image for our theme! It looks like the macaque is wearing eye shadow. Too bad about the cut-off lower jaw but it has happened to all of us. I'm curious because the eyes, teeth and most of the face look sharp, there's just one band across the nose that looks a little softer. It looks like it is in the same plane as the teeth. Was it movement or did you selectively sharpen and apply less there?

TFS and participating in this month's theme,
Rachel

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Nancy, I like the aggressive pose, but would not like to be on the receiving end of those teeth.

The slight head tilt is good and for me, adds interest to the comp. Personally I feel more DoF and SS would be good, but also a bit more sharpening in parts will help, although perhaps there may be a little camera shake? I get the impression either Detail extractor or Highlight/shadow has been used in the mouth? I might experiment on darkening the BKG just to emphasise more the head and if you are using the upgrade version of LR it is oh so easy now and very effective.

As Rachel mentioned, thanks for participating.

TFS
Steve

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you all for your thoughtful comments and suggestions. Steve, nothing used in the mouth except the overall sharpening I did on the entire monkey. Loi & Rachel, I also wondered about the softer nose. Maybe the nose continued to wrinkle up while the mouth stayed more static for the moment?? I'll experiment with darkening the bkgd, but without LR since I do not have it.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Nancy ,
i do think this is an extraordinary head shot , love the expression in the face and the detail you extracted in the mouth. Well done.
Cutting off from bottom and top is no deal breaker here, because the content makes this less noticeable, i feel .
I would give some mid tones, but selectively, to give the image slightly more depth.
Is the blue natural coloration in parts ?

TFS Andreas

[Nancy Bell]

Andreas, yes that blue is natural. As Rachel says, it looks like eye shadow! I'll play more with the midtones as you suggest. Thank you!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Nancy i meant the blue in the fur and inside the mouth , talking about the teeth.
Andreas

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Nacy,

great capture of this Macaque. I like the open mouth very much. To bad about the lower jaw, that happens. When we lived in Malaysia we had a huge family, #38, coming every morning and eve to visit our garden and to play their game with us. They are not quite the friendliest in KL, I had huge respect of them, till day X, when they came into our house through a open window. That was it and I got myself a weapon, the garden hose. Never throw anything at a monkey, they comes they throw back at you!! Water hose was my best friend in these days to get their respect. Suddenly even a open window had a warning sign for them….. yeah yeah, the wired woman with the big water gun will come
Great image

Have a great eve

Ciao
Anette

[keith mitchell]

Wow Nancy you really have got everything with this,no nits from me.

[Nancy Bell]

Thank you everyone! Anette, I had one jump on the frame of my open car window while I was looking through my camera at one just in front of me outside. For too long of a moment the monkey and I stared at each other only inches apart! I put up my arm and fortunately the monkey took the hint and leaped down. I can only imagine the chaos of the monkey in the car!!
Andeas, In the RAW conversion I reduced the darks. Maybe this allowed blues to show. Thank you for your comment. I will now be more aware.