Back from a ~4 months trip to Madagascar and East Africa. I haven't had time to sort the negatives and slides yet, but here's one I have some sentiments to. I like it not so much because of its photographic value, but mainly due to the charming subject, and because I didn't quite believe I'd have a decent picture there.

The primate shot here is a diademed sifaka (Propythecus diadema diadema) - one of the rarest and most beautiful lemurs in madagascar. It was taken in Mantadia national park. We found a group of these lemurs in dense rainforest during a heavy rain. When the rain ceased they became quite active and this is when this shot was taken. The equipment I had was really pushed to its limits here.

Technical details: Canon EOS 1v, 100-400L IS lens @400mm, with Canon 1.4x II extender (giving an effective focal length of 560mm). Shot at f8, hand-held. Exposure unrecorded, but probably around 1/200. Film: Fuji 400 X-tra pushed to 1600.

-- Tuvik Beker (tuvik@cns.tau.ac.il), March 04, 2002

Answers

What a thrill to get a shot like this! Thanks for posting. Hope the rest come out as good.

-- M. Huber (rurpho@tele-net.net), March 05, 2002.

Nice shot, Tuvik. I like the DOF: enough that the foreground is sharp without allowing the background to throw off the eye. Good stuff!

-- Christian Deichert (torgophile@aol.com), March 11, 2002.

Great shot. I think it would make for a stronger composition if you crop off the white on both the left and right sides of the picture.

-- Bryan Tebbenkamp (bjt61630@cmsu2.cmsu.edu), March 19, 2002.