ELEPHANT PORTRAIT/HANUMAN LANGUR PORTRAIT

de Silva Wijeyeratne, G. (2007). Elephant Portrait/Hanuman Langur Portrait. Montage. January 2007. Issue 01.
01 Elephant Portrait
“Photographically, elephants are big, gray, boring lumps. It is impossible to take an interesting photograph of them. I have almost given up.” This was said to me in the course of a conversation in Yala, when my safari jeep had crossed that of another wildlife photographer. That got me thinking. I dawned on me I did not have an interesting elephant image either. I realized to make an interesting portrait it would probably have to be a close crop. Either a feature of an aspect such as the texture of its skin or the face to show ‘personality’. The lighting, or more accurately the angle of the lighting would be critical.
Well, the theoretical conceptualization was the easy part. In America, photographers can set up the lighting to photograph glamorous animals like cougars and other big cats. I am not into set ups and I did not think searching for a studio with an obliging elephant was likely to be fruitful. So the idea remained in my head. One day, the magic happened. An elephant crossed. The light was such that the background was in deep shadow whilst it raked across the elephants face. I saw it in my mind’s eye and maneuvered into position. What you see is in the image is truly natural. Not a result of Photoshop skills. Not that the result would be any different, but its nice to know that one in while it all comes together, naturally.
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne (gehan@jetwing.lk) is a writer, photographer and tourism personality on a mission to create a million wildlife enthusiasts. E-mail him to subscribe to his quarterly wildlife e-newsletter.

02 Hanuman Langur Portrait
Sri Lanka is an island full of primates. There are at least twenty million of one kind. That’s us humans, part of the apes. For an island of its size we are quite rich in other primate species as well. We have the Purple-faced Leaf Monkey and the Toque Monkey two endemics and the Hanuman Langur, we share with India. In addition to the three diurnal species, Sri Lanka has at least two nocturnal primates, the Red Loris and the Grey Loris. The Grey Loris is found in the dry lowlands and is also found in India. The Red Loris is found in the wet zone and is endemic to Sri Lanka. The lorises found in Horton Plains in the central highlands and the one found in the isolated Knuckles massif, may turn out to be species in their own right.
Sadly, Sri Lankans are dismissive of primates. They see them as pesky monkeys and don’t understand how complex their social lives are how much they are like us. I spent a lot of time getting close to this alpha male to capture a portrait to show how intelligent and human-like these animals are.
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne (gehan@jetwing.lk) is a writer, photographer and tourism personality on a mission to create a million wildlife enthusiasts. E-mail him to subscribe to his quarterly wildlife e-newsletter.