Gorilla Expression

[alstauffer]

"What's up with this guy" by alstauffer, on Flickr


This is one of my favorite shots I've taken so far. I'm still learning and I'm just wondering if there's anything I could have done to improve this? It was shot at the Ft. Worth Zoo in Texas last week - As the gorillas are very close to the front of the zoo they were one of the first things I shot, but I wasn't very happy with anything that I got (around noon or 1PM). We were being rushed out because the zoo was closing but I glanced over and happened to see how drastic the change in lighting was as the sun was getting lower in the sky and I ran over for a last-minute photo attempt and managed to grab this.

Pentax K-x
Quantaray 70-300mm lens @ 300mm
ISO 800
f5.6 (wide open)
1/160s

EDIT: Haha, I just noticed that the lens shows up as a Tamron in the Exif - Nice going Quantaray.

[Weird Girl]

AHHAHAHA I love the look on his face! Like he's saying "what in the world" or something. Anyway, i really like this pic! I would just see if you could lighten the right side of his face a little and maybe the overall exposure could be a little brighter but i love the light in his eye.

[Tiberius]

Very nice shot!

[Infinite Monkey]

Great shot! The facial expression is priceless. Congrats.

While you might want to take a look at lightening some of the shadows on his face and body, I suspect that you'll wind up leaving it the way it is. The gradient from left to right reinforces the direction of his gaze as well as supporting the placement of his face in the frame as his gaze heads to the empty space that you've left him and on beyond the frame. Very, very nice.