Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Ray on April 13, 2012, 08:19:11 am

Title: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 13, 2012, 08:19:11 am
Just a few shots of Macaca Malata interacting with Homo Sapiens. These images are copyrighted so any infringement will be severely punished by boiling in oil.

However, all reasonable and sensible comments on artistic merit will be impartially considered.  ;D

Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on April 13, 2012, 09:26:58 am
No criticism for the monkey in #2... he obviously knows what he is doing ;)
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Justan on April 13, 2012, 01:00:32 pm
There's a monkey in the 2nd one?  :D

I’m reminded of a video that circulated a few years ago called “brunette awareness test”
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Rob C on April 13, 2012, 02:13:21 pm
Monkey Sapiens Too.

Rob C
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: stamper on April 14, 2012, 03:36:56 am
Just a few shots of Macaca Malata interacting with Homo Sapiens. These images are copyrighted so any infringement will be severely punished by boiling in oil.

Ray do you HONESTLY  think someone will nick them?  :) ;)

Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 14, 2012, 04:25:38 am
Just a few shots of Macaca Malata interacting with Homo Sapiens. These images are copyrighted so any infringement will be severely punished by boiling in oil.

Ray do you HONESTLY  think someone will nick them?  :) ;)



Is that question another way of saying that you don't find the shots interesting or alluring, or useful for any purpose?  ;)
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: stamper on April 14, 2012, 04:28:45 am
 I am too polite to answer that question. ;D
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 14, 2012, 04:33:32 am
No criticism for the monkey in #2... he obviously knows what he is doing ;)

He's not sure. He's testing the firmness of the ground.  ;D
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: stamper on April 14, 2012, 05:17:19 am
Did you ask him to do this because you were too timid?
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Rob C on April 14, 2012, 08:22:04 am
Did you ask him to do this because you were too timid?




That's the trouble with Scots: they don't believe in a warm-up act.

;-)

Rob C
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 14, 2012, 08:51:41 am
Did you ask him to do this because you were too timid?

Is that your way of implying that I might be an engineer? I'm not an engineer, and this particular lady's father is probably considerably younger than I am. So, not too timid, but just considerate.  ;D

I imagine the monkeys would appeal to these ladies' maternal instinct. I don't believe I would.
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Rob C on April 15, 2012, 04:34:12 am
Is that your way of implying that I might be an engineer? I'm not an engineer, and this particular lady's father is probably considerably younger than I am. So, not too timid, but just considerate.  ;D

I imagine the monkeys would appeal to these ladies' maternal instinct. I don't believe I would.



Don't sell yourself short, Ray; that maternal instinct is responsible fior the most unlikely social/economic mixes you can image: I've seen stunningly beautiful young women on the arms of bowed, wrinkled and yet fat millionaires. Love is blonde blind.

Rob C
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 15, 2012, 10:21:27 am


Don't sell yourself short, Ray; that maternal instinct is responsible fior the most unlikely social/economic mixes you can image: I've seen stunningly beautiful young women on the arms of bowed, wrinkled and yet fat millionaires. Love is blonde blind.

Rob C

No thanks, Rob. That would be awful to think that some attractive lady was just after my money. I do my best to disguise my true, handsome nature so I don't attract the wrong sort of lady. I'd prefer her to be able to see the beauty within.  ;D

Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Rob C on April 15, 2012, 03:39:32 pm
No thanks, Rob. That would be awful to think that some attractive lady was just after my money. I do my best to disguise my true, handsome nature so I don't attract the wrong sort of lady. I'd prefer her to be able to see the beauty within.  ;D





Well, you only have to show it to her, but wallets still win some battles. But whether or not they are worth fighting is, as you indicated, very much another thing.

Rob C
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 17, 2012, 06:01:25 am
What I find interesting about this shot of me and the monkey, is that it seems to be technically quite good despite the fact it was taken by a complete stranger.

As soon as the monkey climbed onto my shoulder, I was surrounded by half a dozen or more tourists snapping away with their P&S cameras. I made the comment, out loud, to no-one in particular, "It's a pity I can't take photos of myself."

Immediately, a buxom young lady offered to photograph me with one of my cameras. I was carrying a D700 with 14-24 zoom, and a D7000 with 24-120 VR zoom at the time. I quickly handed her the D7000 which was in manual mode, F5.6 at 1/800th, ISO 100 and single focussing point.

After the young lady had taken several shots from different angles and different focal lengths and the monkey had decided to jump off my shoulder after realising that I didn't have any bananas (so much for love), the young lady handed back my D7000 with the comment that she hoped the images would be okay because she hadn't been able to see any of the shots she'd taken on the camera's LCD screen.

I did my best to explain the reasons why, but in retrospect, if I'd been thinking more quickly, I could have put the camera in aperture priority mode and ISO 800 before handing it to her. I must be getting old.  ;D

All the images were significantly underexposed of course, which is why the camera's review screen would have displayed a largely black image.
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on April 17, 2012, 11:50:23 am
Cool story, bro! (as my teen would put it :))

However, given the state-of-the-art cameras and sensors today, you might just as well had given it to a monkey and the shot would still be ok.

Funny creatures, those monkeys... they are known to outperform the majority of professional stock market investors, why not photographers then?
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Rob C on April 18, 2012, 06:52:37 am
Cool story, bro! (as my teen would put it :))

However, given the state-of-the-art cameras and sensors today, you might just as well had given it to a monkey and the shot would still be ok.

Funny creatures, those monkeys... they are known to outperform the majority of professional stock market investors, why not photographers then?


Maybe the monkeys might think photographers a bit primitive, a little infra dig and not really worth all the effort in dealing with them? After all, they have had experience of Shakespeare and typewriters.

Rob C
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 19, 2012, 12:07:11 am
No! No! The moral of the story is not about monkeys outperforming stock market investors, nor monkeys eventually succeeding in typing the whole works of Shakespeare, given enough time on the typewriter, such as a period of time which would probably be as great as the time it takes for monkeys to evolve into human beings through processes of Darwinian natural selection, but rather the moral of the story is about the importance of the skill of the person who processes the image, in this instance, me.  ;D
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Rob C on April 19, 2012, 04:18:40 am
No! No! The moral of the story is not about monkeys outperforming stock market investors, nor monkeys eventually succeeding in typing the whole works of Shakespeare, given enough time on the typewriter, such as a period of time which would probably be as great as the time it takes for monkeys to evolve into human beings through processes of Darwinian natural selection, but rather the moral of the story is about the importance of the skill of the person who processes the image, in this instance, me.  ;D



Ray, what are you saying? That monkeys are a sub-species of sorts? I don't think monkeys would agree at all, and let's face it, they are the ones who are happy and competent up in the higher levels, whereas we need ropes and chains and all sorts of fancy, additional equipment in order to avoid falling to our deaths or at least stubbing our toes. As Kodak said, you take the piccy and we'll do the rest. Sound advice then and probably still sound advice today. The 'phone companies are working on it, too. The 'planet of the apes' isn't just a Hollywood fantasy, you know.

Rob C
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 20, 2012, 07:07:18 am


Ray, what are you saying? That monkeys are a sub-species of sorts? I don't think monkeys would agree at all, and let's face it, they are the ones who are happy and competent up in the higher levels, whereas we need ropes and chains and all sorts of fancy, additional equipment in order to avoid falling to our deaths or at least stubbing our toes. As Kodak said, you take the piccy and we'll do the rest. Sound advice then and probably still sound advice today. The 'phone companies are working on it, too. The 'planet of the apes' isn't just a Hollywood fantasy, you know.

Rob C

Well, Rob, they definitely seem to be related. Prior to taking the following shots, I'd been sitting by the hotel swimming pool, reading my Kindle DX and watching some young Homo Sapiens frolicking in the pool, trying to push each other under, and having a bit of a wrestle and a bit of fun.

Four or five hours later I found myself witnessing a similar type of behaviour in a different swimming pool, a more natural swimming pool which was the mouth of a freshwater creek flowing into the sea. Instead of Homo Sapien youths, I saw Macaca Malata youths. They looked a bit different to the Homo Sapiens of course. They had lots of hair covering their body and a long tail, but their behaviour seemed very similar, except I would say they were playing with more vigour. ;D

I no longer had my Kindle DX with me, but I was carrying my Nikon DX (D7000), so was able to take a few shots of this extraordinary event.  ;D

Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on April 20, 2012, 09:22:06 am
They're just monkeying around (but they call it "homo sapiensing around).
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Rob C on April 20, 2012, 12:55:57 pm
They're just monkeying around (but they call it "homo sapiensing around).



All you'd need now is for Trigger to jump in with all four feet hooves; that would be horsing around, which is rather more conventional. For horses, that is. Can you imagine a wet ape doing Lady Godiva? I mean imitating her, of course, on top of Trigger.

Rob C
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 21, 2012, 04:16:49 am
Actually, Rob, monkeys are not apes. They are a different species. But talking about improbable scenarios, can you imagine a monkey serving its apprenticeship as a Hair Stylist.

The lady in the photos below was lucky enough to be the model for such an apprentice, practicing for its future profession.  ;D

Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Rob C on April 21, 2012, 05:25:11 am
"Actually, Rob, monkeys are not apes."

This, Ray, is a well-known, fundmental fact.

However, if you wish to keep a sense of proportion between the species, you simply have to upgrade the scale of the more hairy ones. It's against nature to do otherwise.

Can you spot the one in this shot taken up the local mountain range yesterday?

;-)

Rob C
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Ray on April 21, 2012, 09:54:58 am
Can you spot the one in this shot taken up the local mountain range yesterday?

Hardly! Is this supposed to be a semi-abstract shot? I find the bright vertical branch in the middle a bit disturbing. It divides the image in two. Shouldn't this be a reject?  ;)
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on April 21, 2012, 12:56:43 pm
I think it's actually a "where's Waldo" photo. I think Waldo is over to the right.
Title: Re: Monkeys
Post by: Rob C on April 21, 2012, 03:48:56 pm
I think it's actually a "where's Waldo" photo. I think Waldo is over to the right.



Eric: you've found him! And he's more obvious if you keep the image small. For the less visioned, he occupies the middle half of the far right edge area, and has beautiful brown fur and fascinatingly vacant eyes...

Ray: the bright vertical branch is the subject, shadowy tree dweller notwithstanding. A bit of jarring's good for you.

Rob C