Outtakes

Today Missy was combing her hair and I grabbed the camera and took a series of photos. They all turned out blurry and dark. Here are a few of the better ones:

On a typical day, we take dozens of photos of the chimpanzees. The vast majority of these are deleted. Our photos have improved in quality by leaps and bounds over the last six years – partly due to better camera equipment and partly due to practice – but I would say that 90% of the photos we take on a given day are pretty bad. They’re blurry or the lighting is poor or someone’s eyes are closed. The chimps themselves often don’t help matters either. They love to spend their time high off the ground and in other places that we photographers just don’t have easy access to.

Negra’s favorite spot is in front of this window on the playroom catwalk. Because of the light coming in from the window, she is usually backlit. She is also typically covered up in a blanket. Not great photo conditions.

This is the only line of sight to Jody’s preferred spot:

The playroom loft is another favorite of the chimpanzees. Here’s Annie kicking back, well out of camera range.

In the greenhouse, the chimps love to hang out on the highest platform. This photo of Jamie is a pretty good depiction of how much we can see of them when they’re up there:

And certain folks rarely sit still long enough for us to get a clear photo: