On a trip to the zoo I found myself alone for a moment in the building that houses the big gorillas. I could hear that something was about to come through the door to the room where the big apes hang out. I had the 70-200mm lens on and was shooting at 1600 ISO, at f/4, which gave me only 1/10th of a second shutter speed, so I stepped over the rope barrier ( I know, I know – you’re not supposed to do that) so I could rest my lens hood of the glass to steady the camera. The light was really bad and the glass or Plexiglas was really dirty.
At that point, this big silver back came out and saw me out of the corner of eye. In a heartbeat he crossed a distance of about 15 feet and slammed the glass with the edge of his fist right where I was standing. He then nonchalantly walks over and leans back on a big concrete tree, and gives me this menacing look. I have to admit - I blinked first and backed off, but not before getting this one shot. He made it clear that I had encroached into his space and shot me that look as a warning. I’m pretty sure that this look was personal.
woah! Thank goodness for plexi glass... otherwise, you would have been toast. That is a great picture!
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