Monkey tricks

“I took this photo at Skukuza where this vervet female was watching visitors closely – she was probably hoping for some leftovers. The little one had been drinking from her for a while, but fell asleep in her arms.”

You can’t help but smile when you see this photo. Even though the mother takes up by far the largest section of the pic, you can’t miss the peaceful face of the little one. Even if you look at the mother’s face first, your eye is drawn to the little one, which makes it the focal point. Also, the adult monkey looks away from the young one, outside the photo border, and that also spontaneously draws your eye to the little one.

Other than identifying with that little monkey’s serenity, there’s another element to this beautiful moment: the placement of little one’s face looks quite uncomfortable. And it’s precisely this ‘discomfort’ that makes it a more interesting photo.

In the original photo, the third on the right is unnecessary. There’s no detail to be seen here and it also doesn’t contribute to the negative space in terms of composition. Besides, the mother’s foot is cropped off.

To make the photo even more striking, you could change it to black and white. But that in itself isn’t enough – lighten the pic and increase the contrast, and a lot more detail jumps out at you. (You also get rid of the grey background and you see more of the bigger monkey’s face.)

You could also make the white shades even more white – then you can just about sense every single hair on the two animals.