Borneo Series - Orangutans

The orangutans are the only exclusively Asian living genus of great ape. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping nests each night from branches and foliage. They are generally not aggressive and live a mostly solitary life foraging for food.

Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

-- Source:Wikipedia.

We had been to the Borneo Rain-forests (Malaysia) recently. And one of the greatest joys was spotting the orangutans in their natural habitat out in the wild.

1. This is our first sighting on Day 1. Mr shy orangutan. Quite funny how he was hiding his face from us.

DSC_0887.jpg, originally uploaded by Aroj.

2. The very next day we spotted this guy sitting comfortably on this tree just outside where we were camped! It was quite a thrill spotting a orangutan at such close quarters.

DSC_1093.jpg, originally uploaded by Aroj.

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3. He soon gets bored of being on the tree, climbs down and walks across till he come to a rest. Meanwhile we are clicking away crazy.

DSC_1105.jpg, originally uploaded by Aroj.

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 4. This is at the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre. This guy just walked towards us on the railing as soon as we entered!

DSC_1227.jpg, originally uploaded by Aroj.

DSC_1236.jpg, originally uploaded by Aroj.

 5. This is feeding time for the orangutans. 

DSC_1320.jpg, originally uploaded by Aroj.

You look your way, I look mine :-)

DSC_1282.jpg, originally uploaded by Aroj.

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Steps by the Water

Nandi Hills-20, originally uploaded by Aroj.

Taken at Nandi Hills. How I wish there was someone sitting on the steps towards the bottm right! But I still love this image.

Fall before Water

dandeli 458-1, originally uploaded by Aroj.

Tried a slow shutter here to capture the energy in the flow of the stream. Managed to catch the guy at just the right posture before he bent down further.

Though a slow shutter has overexposed my image as you can see. An attempt at increasing the shadows in picasa has also led to shadow clipping.

Well you learn from your mistakes. Will be more careful next time and either use a filter or reduce iso/higher aperture number to better control the exposure.

The Fortune Teller

dandeli 310-1, originally uploaded by Aroj.

Love the play of light and shadow on his face and the warm yellow glow all around.

One of those shots where I used spot metering to expose for the light falling on his face. This is not really a posed shot. It's about 6 in the evening. I jacked up my ISO, moved in close and took the meter reading of his face, framed and shot. Have darkened the shadows to take out the distractions in the background.