Lincoln Park Zoo
Posted On: July 6, 2009
Posted In: animals, bored, cages, chimps, depressed, gorillas, indoors, isolated, lion, lonely, monkeys, observedfeeds, photographer, Photography, primates, sea, sealion, sedated, sick, tired, zoo, zooanimals
Comments: 6 Responses
Posted In: animals, bored, cages, chimps, depressed, gorillas, indoors, isolated, lion, lonely, monkeys, observedfeeds, photographer, Photography, primates, sea, sealion, sedated, sick, tired, zoo, zooanimals
Comments: 6 Responses
One of the nation’s oldest zoos housing 1200 animals representing 230 species.
Free and open to the public.
I dig the lo-fi-ness of especially the second and third photos. I was thinking about this the other day re: music and film. You get groups like Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings or Iron and Wine who intentionally go about recording on analog tape using uber-vintage equipment. They effectively get the sound of the records we loved back in the 50′s and 60′s. Films like Buffalo 66 and Oh Brother Where Art Thou go for the graininess and oversaturation. I think the appeal of part of this stuff is it is like a personal reference to the point you fell in love with your medium. I love mid-60′s production and sound engineering, so I try to make my recordings sound like that.
This is becoming a non-sensical rant. Anyways. My 2 cents.
Sea Lion, The Great Indoors, and Perpetual Boredom really stand out because they are great shots without post processing. The de-saturation or whatever is goin on with the others doesn’t make the photos more interesting at all for me. Perpetual boredom is such a great shot the way it is composed and the ape staring off into infinity, almost as if he’s just unaware of the attention he gets all day. There will be no dancing today.
Parting shot of Chi-town is also an unexpected but welcome surprise in the series.
I too love The Great Indoors. Doc Conspicuous and I went out a couple weeks ago in search of a great lone tree to snap photos of, I think you nailed it with that one. I like how it’s framing a frame of a tree. Adds a little something to what would otherwise be a nice landscape shot.
Echo Bloom, thanks! Yeah, exactly. It’s kind of like editing film for me. What you can do with what you’ve captured after you’ve captured it. I love it. For some reason I’ve been really into this pale yellow, green, blue, with occasional bursts of strong red look. Do you own a lot of Tiesco instruments? heh.
Novachord, You’re right about the gorilla one having the least amount of post-processing. But I think you’d be surprised to see how much went into the other ones, especially Sea Lion. When I was tweaking the gorilla one, i couldn’t pull my usual colors on it.. and it just didn’t feel right to push it that far as the others. Perhaps it’ll be a turning point in my style to move towards hyper-realism. Kind of like that last Chicago shot (which was taken from the exit bridge from the Zoo).
Hyperbolus, were you guys searching for the Six Feet Under tree? Hehe. Their backdrops at the zoo were as good as any classic hollywood film. Like Gone With The Wind. I wanted climb that tree and shout “As God as my witness, I’ll never be poor again!!”.
Side Show is really interesting. The way it’s composed, it looks like an intervention with the gorilla. All the people are like his closest friends telling him he needs to quit shooting up heroin and get a job.
Perpetual Boredom is a good one too. I’m kinda torn though with the composition having that black wall on the left. I like it but also it makes me feel uncomfortable for some reason. But maybe that’s a good thing. It helps add to the feeling of captivity and claustrophobia.
I dig the Sea Lion shot too. Is that your pop? Poppa Salvatron? The silhouette is a great addition to the overall essence. However, I think the shot could have been better composed if it were without the sign. It would have made for a cool shot of some private meeting between the sea lion and the person… especially how the sea lion is upside down looking at the figure… a better story I think.
As for your usual style, I tend to dig it. You’ve got it nailed down. But I think it goes too far in a couple of these shots…. namely in Tired. You end up losing a lot of detail in the lizard… especially in his eyes. The colors are great in it, but I feel the blacks are pushed too far. Or maybe there just needs to be more selective shadowing or something. Add more detail in the lizard and keep the rest how it is so the area of a focus remains on the lizard. The composition in Family is great too but also, you lose detail in the monkeys’ fur and eyes. I know you’re not necessarily going for National Geographic pictures here, but I think the eyes are important. I once read that wildlife photographers will still use a flash in the bright sunlight when shooting animals so that the eyes get a highlight and really pop.
Anyway, I don’t think there’s a problem with lots of post-processing. And all this stuff is subjective anyway and just depends on what you, the photographer, are going for. Like I said, it’s a cool look, just in some shots maybe taken too far. Also, yeah I’m down for seeing you experiment with different styles. You’ve got a great artistic eye and have nailed down this look. So what’s the next new Salvatron look?
PFFFFFfffft! Conspicuous!
Ya mental…
YA MENTAL!…
I like the sign in the sea lion shot. It looks like something out of one of those Living Nature films from science class in the 7th grade with the slide carousel and the audio cassette tape and the analog Boops n Beeps that announce the changing the slides. I do see what you’re saying though.. that it potentially takes away from the connection between the two subjects, but I think it gives more of contrast to the actual sea lion. The image in the sign of the sea lion is almost like it’s driver’s license photo, and you look to the left and see the real beast swimming upside down and he’s almost anthropomorphized from it’s playfulness. The guy is not my dad… he’s just some dude.
I think you’re right about my style.. shit is nailed down. Time to branch out and expand my technique. The filters I’ve generated have become crutches to my growth.
I’m glad the black wall makes you uncomfortable. Not my original intention, but I guess an added bonus. There were just so many people it was hard to get a shot.
Your take on Side Show is hilarious. I should Photoshop AE’s Intervention logo at the bottom.
I agree about post-processing. I think it’s kind of like ironing.. you go over a spot.. then you go over it again and again until it’s just right.. sometimes you can go over too much though and burn the fabric. Gotta get the right balance.