Another Inmate

Any suggestions or observations are most welcome.

 

Regards,

 

 

Duncan

Waaw...I am really moved by your photo ! This is very rare on photo net ! This is the best photo I have seen the last 3 months...great work !

Thank you Ivan. Your comment means a lot to me, because it shows me that I am progressing in my photography.

 

In the last few months I've started to realise that what makes the difference between a good photograph and a memorable one is the emotional connection/response that the viewer has with the scene.

 

I really want to go back to the Utsunomiya Zoo as it's only 40 minutes away from where I am living this year and get more deliberate shots of the other animals (I was rather pressed for time as I was there with my wife and daughter) to help raise awareness and money for this zoo.

 

The staff, many of whom are volunteers and local university students deeply care for the animals and their welfare, but the facilities are ageing and without proper funding they cannot afford to build new enclosures on top of the daily running costs and maintenance of existing enclosures.

Well done. Animals in cages usually do no photograph well but you got this one right. The dark background is good. Jerry

I guess that I must starts telling you that technically this an outstanding work, and it is.

But more transcendent is the fact that you've photographed a prisoner, and that he/she is claiming for freedom with the gaze. Moving by sadness.

Very good shot. Regards.

They say a pictures can say a thousand words...This has a least that many to say.  Without knowing the story behind this shot I have a sense of sadness, melancholy, and almost despair.  I'm not sure if it's this little guys feelings or just mine...but the fact that this shot impacts me so much says, to me, that this image goes beyond fantastic.  Congrats on an amazing image!!  Truly National Geographic worthy.

My wife, daughter and I decided to visit the nearby Utsunomiya Zoo (Japan) as a little day trip from where we live in Tochigi. Shortly after arriving I was quite overcome with sadness at the conditions a large portion of the animals live in. I must stress that none of them are treated badly by the staff, quite the opposite; the staff deeply care for the well being of these creatures, it's just that there just isn't enough money to build newer and less aesthetically confining habitats.

 

This image is of a young monkey as opposed to the elderly female chimpanzee in 'The Prisoner' and was very much an opportune photograph. He or she was fleeing from a more dominate member of her group, as she climbed up the link fence in front of me to get away, she just stopped and stared at me with those sad eyes for no more than a few seconds before she climbed as high as she could to escape.

 

I was lucky to get the shot, so much so that I really did not think about any of the settings and in all honestly I barely gave composition a second thought. All I knew was that I had to get the shot and thankfully muscle memory co-operated enough to do the rest.