Chimping Ain’t Easy

Prior to my arrival in Washington, I was a photojournalist for the better part of a decade. It was during one of my photography classes way back when that I was introduced to the term “chimping.” The term came about at the dawn of digital photography. It was when digital cameras were beginning to be used more frequently over film (though film cameras were still widely used). Chimping is when you take a photograph and immediately look down at the screen to see how the photo came out.

There are two explanations of how the term came to be. The first is if the photographer takes a good photo, looks down,  and sees it, their response is similar to a pant hoot. A series of “Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!” as they scroll through their photos. The second explanation is that if a photographer spends so much time looking at the photos they just took, they may miss something. The story goes that a photographer went to a zoo to take photos of chimpanzees. Every time he took a photo he would look down at his screen to see how his shot came out. As he did this, the chimpanzees would do some remarkable things, but stop once he brought his camera up to get photos.

So we were taught to never “chimp” our photos so we wouldn’t miss anything. That lesson has stuck with me even today. Though, admittedly, I will chimp from time-to-time to ensure I got a good shot. By using this method, I have taken a lot of “outtakes” to my blog postings. So I thought I would share some of my outtakes today.

Sometimes these photos are just by chance. Like this photo of Jamie which was taken last week as I was testing out another camera lens we have.

Some times I won’t use a photo because I catch a chimp in mid-yawn. Like this one of Honey B from a couple of months ago.

Or sometimes they blink the second I push the shutter. Like Missy here scratching her chin. She looked pretty thoughtful otherwise, but this is what the camera caught. I admittedly chimped after this photo and wasn’t able to catch her looking thoughtful because as you know, Missy is usually always on the move. An example of why chimping is bad.

Other times, the photos just don’t fit the overall flow of the blog post, but they are too good not to share.

Like these photos of Burrito eating chow after a recent forage on Young’s Hill, Jody waking up in the morning and checking out what is going on outside, and Honey B getting into Honey B antics.

I tried to take some photos today as well. I couldn’t think of how to piece them together to write a well-cohesive posting today. On any other day, they probably would have ended up in my outtakes folder. But they actually helped inspire me to share some of my previous outtakes.

When the chimpanzees got access to Young’s Hill this morning, it was a little chilly. Foxie sneered her entire time outside before retreating back to the Greenhouse.

Jamie held off on going outside right away and enjoyed her chow in the warmth of the Greenhouse.

On the other side of the sanctuary, Honey B made probably the best fort I have seen her make.

And per usual, Mave was just being a mixture of goofy, shy, and beautiful today.