I’m entering a “Panels” competition in a few days time and so have been thinking of ideas of what images to enter over the last few weeks. A panel is a collection of photographs (in this case 6 photos) which are linked together by a common element or theme and so form a coherent set. I’d had some ideas about shooting some new shots specifically for the panel, but in the end looked through my library to find a set of images that I could use. In that search, I found this gem which I had previously completely overlooked.
This photo was taken in Dublin Zoo on a recent camera club outing, and I posted a slideshow of images from that shoot shortly after the trip. There is a photograph of this chimpanzee in that slideshow, but it’s not this particular image.
I actually spent quite a bit of time at the chimpanzee enclosure and this guy was very happy to perform for the camera, doing a lot of swinging on branches and running up and down along the windows, which was entertaining to watch but not easy to capture on camera, especially as the enclosure was quite dark. As I started to move on from the enclosure he obviously decided the show was over and lay down on the ground. I took one last shot and thankfully he looked up at the camera as I did so, giving me this image.
I missed it on my first edit of the photographs mainly because the way he lay down meant he was upside down to the camera, and so on a quick run through the images I just dismissed it.
When I revisited it this weekend, flipped it, and cropped in to make a nice tight portrait, the eye contact with the camera stood out, and the depth of field and focus is spot on.
It was largely down to luck that I got the shot, but looking at the panel of six animal portraits that I’ve now put together, I think this is one of the stronger shots in the set.
Hopefully the full panel will be well received when I present it in the camera club on Tuesday evening.
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