About the Image(s)

My image this month was taken at a local wildlife park in January. The park is taking part in a special international breeding programme for Western Lowland gorillas - they are critically endangered as a species.

On the day of our visit, this impressive male was sitting just inside the glass wall, quietly contemplating - and totally ignoring any visitors. My camera settings were 96mm, ISO800, 1/250sec @ f/7.1.

The shot is what it is. I didn't try to hide that it was taken through glass. In fact I rather like all the reflections.

I did a general tidy of the shot, removing a few light streaks across his face and removing a couple of big dirty spots on the glass. I adjusted the shadows to bring out a bit more detail in his face. I didn't like the distraction of the bright background that you can see in the SOOC original - it was a very bright, sunny day. So I opened it in Colour Efex Pro, increased detail around his eye, increased contrast slightly and added a vintage film effect. I then cropped in to finish.