The one, the only…Burrito.
portrait
A Day of Sanctuary in Honor of Ben & Annie
Today’s day of sanctuary is sponsored by Elliott Sumers for Ben Sumers and Annie “who treat humans and animals with love and respect.”
Thank you Elliott, Ben and Annie!
It seems fitting to share some photos of beautiful Annie chimpanzees today. Happy Saturday, everyone!
A Study in Annie Chimpanzee
Chimpanzees are not known for being delicate, but Annie somehow manages to be graceful and elegant, particularly when she is having a quiet moment to herself.
Taking some photos up a notch
I really like black and white photos. I think it lends a more intimate feeling to portraits – you can really concentrate on the person’s facial features and wonder about their personalities and their pasts without the distraction of color.
We’ve been getting some great close-up photos of the chimpanzees lately plus I found a few that we hadn’t posted before, so I thought I would render some in black and white and sepia.
What do you think?
This is a close up of Annie’s eyes:
Annie:
Foxie:
Jamie (I just love this photo that Katelyn took – it’s great in color and sepia):
Jody:
Burrito:
Missy:
Last, but never least, Negra:
Favorite staff photos
J.B. and I played a bit of a trick on Elizabeth, Debbie, Katelyn, and Keri recently.
I asked each of them to send me their favorite photos that they had taken, with the reasoning that I wanted to do an end-of-year “staff photo picks” blog post. Our real intention was to get them a Christmas gift with their favorite photo printed on metal. Pretty sneaky, right?
It worked beautifully – they were genuinely surprised by and (I’m pretty sure) happy with the gifts. Of course they couldn’t pick just one photo each, because they are all such great photographers!! Plus they love all of the chimps so much. So I had to narrow it down from the several photos they picked. There were a variety of factors to consider, including which photos would likely look best once printed on the metallic surface.
I figured I may as well go ahead with my cover story and share the photos on the blog so you too can enjoy them.
These are the four photos I had printed for their gifts:
Debbie’s photo (Foxie):
Keri’s photo (Annie):
Elizabeth’s photo (Burrito):
Katelyn’s photo (Foxie):
Just because I feel the need to have all of the chimps represented, here are a few more favorites:
a photo J.B. took of Missy in her element:
Another of Katelyn’s – this one I am guessing will always be a classic of Jamie:
This was another of Keri’s picks. I really like it because of Jody’s extreme relaxed face:
I took this one of Negra in October, but it might be my all time favorite photo of her (except for the other 15 all-time favorite photos I have of Negra, taken by various staff photographers):
If you have a favorite photo of one (or more) of the Cle Elum Seven, let us know – we’d love to see what your favs are too!
Portraits
As volunteers at CSNW advance in their training, there comes a point when they are tested on their ability to identify the chimps. Understandably, this can cause some anxiety. After all, when you are new to being around chimps, you can’t help but focus on how different they look from us, instead of how different they look from each other. At first you look for prominent features and try to put them together like a puzzle:
Missing ear + Big belly + Bald head = Negra
Missing toes + Heart shaped brow ridge + Hairless forearms = Jody
Perfect posture + Intense gaze = Jamie
Notch in ear + Kind of looks like Shrek = Annie
Slight build + Troll in hand = Foxie
No neck + Silvery back = Missy
Testicles = Burrito!
But then one day it all comes together, and instead of seeing individual features, you see personalities. Instead of seeing parts, you see people. And you wonder how on earth you could have missed it before.
Missy:
Jody:
Negra:
Jamie:
Annie:
Burrito:
Foxie:
Lost in thought
I’m pretty sure that 99% of Burrito’s thoughts revolve around food, but he saves 1% for quiet contemplation.
