A Gorilla Portrait (and more)

I went to the zoo for about an hour yesterday. Just a quick jaunt to get some walking in and snap a few photos.  It being cool, with kids in school and in the mid afternoon on a Friday, there weren’t a lot of people.  One benefit to that was having the gorilla exhibit more or less to myself.

Colo, the first Gorilla born in captivity (and the oldest currently in captivity), was lounging on her belly, thoughtfully watching the few visitors there. At one point, I was the only person there, so she was quite focused on me.  I made sure to get down to the same level she was on to make the shot more intimate, and I put my lens directly up to the glass to eliminate reflections.  Shooting at f/1.8 made sure that any spots or scratches on the glass were not visible in the final image.  The result is below.

Colo – Columbus Zoo – Olympus OM-D E-M5 with Olympus 75mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8

In addition to the above, I searched around for some shots I hadn’t really taken before.  The leopard was lounging on a tree close to the glass, but had her head turned away.  So I opted for a different sort of shot:

Leopard Tail – Olympus OM-D E-M5 with Olympus 75mm f/1.8 @ f/1.8

And the tortoises, while usually rather boring subjects, made for an interesting photo when they lumbered over to each other, and for just one second, rested their heads together.  Luckily I happened to be there with my camera at the ready:

Tortoise Love – Olympus OM-D E-M5 with Panasonic 45-175mm X @ 175mm, f/5.6

Comments

4 responses to “A Gorilla Portrait (and more)”

  1. Ed Rosack Avatar

    Hi Jordan,

    Very nice images. I especially like the gorilla and tortoise photos.

    Ed

  2. Declan Avatar
    Declan

    Fantaaastic gorilla photo …. Arghh, such a great photo.

  3. Glenn Hubbers Avatar

    The gorilla and tortoises are very nice, but the leopard shot really caught my eye. I’m not sure I would have seen that opportunity. Very nice!

  4. Angela W Avatar

    Your contact page doesn’t work

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