Congrats on making the best of your opportunity to photograph these animals in such a fascinating setting. You've captured the grooming behavior and the expressive face of the monkey looking directly at us, giving this image a bit of personality and a terrific story.

Great idea using a wide-angle lens. That's an unusual close up. And considering the difficult lighting conditions you described, you did a nice job recovering detail in the shaded animals without making them look artificially illuminated.

My principal concern is the background, which I find terribly distracting. There's simply too much competing for our attention: bright blue sky, sunlit foliage, tree trunks, stone pillars, and patches of strong contrast. Unfortunately, all that visual activity competes with what I believe is the real magic of this photograph-the interaction between the monkeys.

I think including the ruins was a thoughtful artistic decision. But there's a distinction between including enough environment to establish a sense of place and including so much that it competes with the subjects; and to my eye, the background is doing the latter.

Nonetheless, you've captured a terrific behavioral moment, made excellent use of your proximity to the animals, and given us a glimpse into their lives. You've done more than show us what an animal looks like - your image tells us something about how they live.
  Posted: 11/01/2026 15:39:35

Well, thanks for proving what I've always said, that being a telephoto lens is not always the best choice for wildlife photography. In this instance this instance I think the wide angle lens was a must to capture this dramatic image. Of course,the camera angle certainly helped as well. I think the story is clear although I do wonder if a lower aperture may have blurred that background a bit more. Like Butch I wonder if there is too much background for a nature image. To me this seems like having a barn wall in a photo of barn swallows, just how much is too much of the hand of man. No matter I like this image and think you made the right choices.   Posted: 11/01/2026 19:02:59

"No, dear, you can't have her camera. You remember what happened last time?"

Great shot - but monkeys scare me a bit. You did a great job of reversing the light so the monkeys stood out better. I'm glad you got some of the temple in the shot, too, although, a bit blurrier might have looked better.   Posted: 11/01/2026 19:29:53

Cindy, you have really managed to capture these monkeys with their typical behaviour and in their natural environment in the temple.

There is lots of detail in the monkeys with perfect exposure after your post processing.

There is always debate about the environment and human elements in the nature shots.

A photo of a lion on a huge boulder at sunset where the lion is maybe 20% of the photo or in this case where most of the background is the temple typically do not do well in our local South African or FIAP salons. But they look great on National Geographic or marketing material on destinations or travel photography.

I like the story telling of these photos and would personally typically put them in a different category :)

I might drop the highlights in the background a tiny bit to put more focus on the monkeys.

Well Captured!




  Posted: 11/02/2026 06:41:38