The Artist Takes a Bow

Flickr Link
Taken on April 12, 2010
Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 400

Musings and thoughts:
The painting on the left was created by the elephant on the right. The gentleman in the center handed paintbrushes of various colors to the elephants who then applied the paint as they saw fit. It’s pretty clear that the whole exercise represents learned behavior, but it’s still fun to see the elephants create works of “art.” The colors of the branches were created by dabbing repeatedly semi-randomly at the board, an act that the elephant appeared to particularly enjoy. Perhaps that is because the trunk is not a particularly accurate tool to be using for painting and the elephant didn’t have to be very accurate when dabbing semi-randomly.

Technical thoughts:
The photo is not quite sharp, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps there was some dust on the lens or in the air that gives a slightly blurred effect. At 1/640 of a second and with plenty of light and time for focusing, there is no technical reason why the shot should be anything other than perfectly sharp.

I could do without the elephant legs in the background, though I think they’re sufficiently abstract to provide a pleasing thematic pattern. If they were any stronger they’d be way too distracting. The person behind the elephant is far worse in terms of how distracting he is for the photo.

I like the color palette of reds and browns with a few greens in the painting. The elephant taking a bow tells the story immediately and the trainer looking at him provides as nice a vector as I could ask for. Naturally if I could have controlled the situation I would have set things up differently. As it is, it turns out to be a quite passable shot.