Lost in Thought

One of the things that is a powerful composition is when you can put the human mind or thought process inside that of an animal. In this case, it appears that the gorilla is lost in thought. But, what is it thinking about? In my mind, it seems neither a sad or a happy thought, but just an everyday type of thought. But, that is the beauty of a photo such as this. It is left up to the viewer's interpretation and which gives the photo strong intrigue.

This was taken moments before the zoo keepers at the San Diego Zoo fed them. The gorillas sensed they were close by and were waiting for the head of cabbage to be tossed to them. They love catching the heads of lettuce as well and boasting when they do catch them.

I usually try not to include much of the zoo structures, as possible, when composing animals in a zoo environment. But, I really liked how the solid green wall went well with the green vegetation off to the left side and it made the gorilla very prominent in the frame. It also helps when the gorilla has a pretty neat posture, to go with that stare in it's eyes.

Family Time

On this trip to the San Diego Zoo, the primates seemed to be the prize of the day. In this photo, the family of Bonobos is spending time together. You could not ask for a much more precious photo. All the different emotions in a single pic.

I decided to process this one a little more aggressive, because it was shot thru thick protective glass and it affected the sharpness and focus of the image. I decided to process this black-and-white (which seems like a no-brainier). But, not only did I do that, but my goal was to bring out detail and to not let the out-of-focus areas in the image distract the viewer's eyes.

You have a lot in this photo which garners an emotional response. So much is open to the viewer's interpretation. I find the one with the hand on the other and looking like it is in deep thought or in a reflective mood, to be the most powerful. They were up against the stone wall and created a nice texture all on it's own.

This photo is more artistic than what I usually do. But, since I knew this image was a natural candidate for a black-and-white conversion, I kind of felt I could get away with a more artistic interpretation.

If you have any questions about the post-processing, feel free to leave a comment.

B-39 Soviet Submarine Control Panel

Here's a photo inside a former Soviet Russian Submarine, called the B-39. It is now on permanent display at the San Diego Maritime museum.

Obviously, one of the challenges of shooting inside this submarine is the tight, cramped quarters and also the lack of much light. It is also pretty tough to keep photos pretty simple, when composing them. So, I decided to embrace confusion. Wouldn't you be confused when you saw all these dial, valves, knobs, switches, etc...staring at you?

This is the control panel in the diesel engine compartment. I shot this with my new Carl Zeiss 21mm f2.8 ZE Distagon lens. What a fabulous piece of glass it is! I am shooting this right as you enter this compartment. You can actually see the next space at the bottom right, which I believe in the actual engine room. So you can see how tight the space is.

My focus for this shot was the panels. I decided to basically shoot this straight on and use the red wheel, which stands out prominently in this photo. That gives the eyes a comfortable to rest. Now, what does this wheel actually do? Hmmmmm...

Heading Out

This was a recent photo taken this past weekend, out at the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea is located in the Imperial Valley, in Southern California and it has a very interesting and strange history behind it. It was formally called the Salton Sink, until a flood caused by the waters of the Colorado River in 1905-1906 created the Salton Sea. You can read more about the Salton Sea at Wikipedia.

One very important function the sea serves is it is a stopover for migrating birds. During the Winter months, hunters and bird-watchers head out to this area. In this photo, some skittish coots are taking off into the vast, open Salton Sea. That is a very common theme out in this area. There is a lot of...well... nothing.

I was trying out my new Zeiss 21mm lens I received this week. It is a superb piece of glass and I think it will eventually make me compose photos even better than I have in the past. One thing great about prime (fixed focal length) lenses is that it will train your eyes and make you put much more thought into your compositions. With zoom lenses, it is easy to be lazy or fall back into your normal compositions which you have done time and time again, in the past. I think this lens will make me see things differently. By the way, this lens is superb in quality and I can certainly shoot without worrying about any quality issues.