The Nilgiri langur
Have you ever seen this beauty in wild,may not be necessary as they are endemic to southern parts of India. Yes as the name suggests they mainly inhibit the Neelgiri Hills of Tamilnadu and they are also found in the Western ghats of Kerala and Karnataka.The langurs live in small groups,and they are mainly tree dwellers and seldom get down the earth.You have to spend lot of time with these beautiful animals to get the perfect shots you want.Monkeys are highly intelligent, and when ever you photograph them its always advisable to go for the behavior shots.They are highly active and unpredictable. Spending lot of time with them may help,you can concentrate on their social behaviors, grooming, parental care etc for making excellent behavior shots. Young monkeys are treat for eyes, they may prove to be the excellent subject, but you have to be prepared for the action shots. Neelgiri langurs bare a lot of similarities with the gray langurs,except that of the black body color(gray langurs, as the name suggest have a solid gray colored body)gray langurs are comparatively wide spread, and they range the entire South Asia.Lets move on to the photography aspects of this shot.
What happens when you have a black subject
What do you think, does the color of your subject is going to affect your exposure settings?.Yes indeed, in fact we need to discuss this subject in detail in the tutorial section .When you set your exposure parameters in your camera, you have to always take care of the color of the subject. In my opinion photographing black colored and bright colored subjects both are tricky in its own different ways.As a general rule you need to over expose a bit deliberately when you photograph black subjects, and on the other hand you need to underexposed a bit when you shoot bright colored subjects.The amount of over/under exposure purely depends on the given situation and it may vary accordingly( we will discuss this in detail later on).The Nilgiri langurs have a dark colored body and they have dark face with bright golden brown fur surrounding the face.You need to find the perfect balance between the two, you should showcase the face well while you should avoid overexposure of the bright fur surrounding the head.
The perfect head turn
This photograph has been taken from Parambikulam Tiger reserve. Parambikulam reserve in Kerela is near to Anamalai hills of Tamilnadu, and it dwells a healthy population of Nillgiri langurs.They were a group consisting of 10 -15 members and were highly active. I found my model sitting isolated from the rest of the group, but unfortunately he was sitting against the sun. There was no light falling on his face,and I was waiting for some extra light on face in order to take the shot. Yah I was aware of the trick, it was simple,I decided to wait,keeping my settings right for the occasion.He was reluctant to give a pose, but after nearly half an hour of waiting he suddenly went for the perfect head turn, and as I waited for it I was able to make the image. For sure,you need to have a plan, and you need to do all the home work. Happy shooting until we meet again.
Did you know?
Endemic species - Endemic species are endemic to a particular region and will not be found anywhere else in the world.Endemic species has to be given special care in the context of conservation, as any drastic change in their endemic habitat can adversely affect the survival of the animals and may even lead to the complete extinction.
