Cheeky Monkey - Jaku Temple, India – Sid Verma

If you have ever visited a temple full of monkeys in Southeast Asia you are in for an experience. Mine was in Lopburi, Thailand. The first feeling you have is how amazing it is to get so close to a wild animal in a manmade setting. The next can be anything from pure amusement to sheer terror. You see when these little guys want something they get it! Glasses, flip flops, food, almost anything you have they will ask politely for with a hand gesture and if you don’t hand it over they usually don’t give up. Fortunately Sid’s cheeky monkey had his fill of biscuits, posed for the shot and then ran off. This is another example of being prepared when you are in the right place and right time. See how Sid improved his cheeky monkey image by reading below and then visit his incredible websites here  http://www.sidvermaphotography.com and here http://500px.com/vermasid and don’t forget to “Like” him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SidVermaPhotography

Enjoy!

Enter Sid:

Macaques are one species I can click any day and any time and luckily Hindu Temples in India are full of them. If one can spend a few hours photographing Macaques, you are sure to get some amazing shots of them being naughty and playing tricks on each other or fighting for food. Monkeys in India are regarded as the avatar of Hindu Deity “Hanuman”.

On one of my recent trips to Shimla in the upper Northern region of India, I visited the famous Jakhu (pronounced: Jaa-khoo) Temple which has a 108 feet high statue of Hanuman and scores of Macaques with their babies. I got my shot early morning when the Macaques were all waiting for a good breakfast meal to be tossed to them by one or the other devotee visiting the temple.  It wasn’t long before someone tossed an open pack of biscuits which caught the eye of all of the macaques. This particular Macaque showed lightning fast reflex and gobbled a biscuit immediately, took the second one to stuff in its mouth, while it still hadn’t finished the first one, and held the third biscuit in his hand before making a dash to safety. It was interesting to see how the macaque tried to grab as much as he could, since he could not run away with the whole pack which was torn.

The shot

I took a burst of shots (‘Ch’ mode in D7000) to catch most of the action and took the shot in RAW format for easier color & exposure corrections. This picture was particularly interesting as I managed to catch the Macaque looking right into the camera, before making a run with his loot.

The backdrop of this shot had trees which had green, yellow and brown leaves. It was too busy with the bokeh effect and I decided to make the background black & white to emphasize and bring the focus on the Macaque.

The Gear & other details

Camera: Nikon D7000

Lens: Nikon 18-200mm

Focal Length: 200mm

Shutter Speed: 1/125 Sec

Aperture: 6.3

ISO: 200

Editing: PS CS6

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