Picture This - A Friendly Place to Improve Your Photography

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I've spent a lot of time volunteering in animal rescue centres around the world and I'm saddened that captive breeding programmes are necessary. I felt sympathy looking at the orangutan gazing aimlessly away from the zoo crowd, sitting on a feeble construction of wooden poles and ropes, knowing it should be in a forest somewhere in the Far East. I wanted to question the upbringing of creatures in zoos where they become accustomed to human handlers and can no longer survive in the wild. I don’t claim to know whether it’s right or wrong – if it’s even as clear-cut as that, but it’s certainly not natural. I read about leaf frogs that are an intense red colour, which warns off predators – it suggests they taste bad and so bigger animals don’t eat them. I changed the colours in the orangutan image so the animal glowed red: a warning that the natural evolution of these animals is in danger because of captive breeding. It also highlights the near extinction of the orangutan and an end to its evolution altogether.

This photo has been digitally retouched.

I used Microsoft PictureIt! to enhance the red in the image.

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hollymckenna said...

I really like the retouching in this photo because it almost looks like its from another world. I also like the space in the picture which seems to make the idea behind it, of the captivity versus freedom more poignant.

Posted on 11/01/2008 20:05

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Natalie Gilbert said...

Thanks for your comments on the retouching, I'm glad you like it :) I was experimenting with PictureIt! and although it's not as sophisticated as Photoshop, it's simple method really worked for this image.

Posted on 13/01/2008 14:18

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timemaker said...

It all works well for me too. The space; the colour; the face turned away; the sparseness of 'things to do'. The re-touching reminds me of the campaign 'stop the bloody whaling' with blood splatters on the poster. Yours also has a blood feel to it, 'stop the culling of endangered species'.

Posted on 12/01/2008 13:33

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Natalie Gilbert said...

Thanks for the positive comments. As a first year student learning about visual language, it's good to know my image communication is working thus far!

Posted on 13/01/2008 14:36

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