"Hey, Are You OK?"

Most pictures of parenting depict a parent nurturing a child. In context, this one seemed to show the opposite. The old ape had behaved for some minutes as though in a down mood. Then the young came over to gently give comfort. The title expresses what might have been the question it asked.

Cheers, Mike.

Michael_Stones said:

Most pictures of parenting depict a parent nurturing a child. In context, this one seemed to show the opposite. The old ape had behaved for some minutes as though in a down mood. Then the young came over to gently give comfort. The title expresses what might have been the question it asked.

Cheers, Mike.

Click to expand...

That is simply adorable, Mike. Beautiful photograph!
Maggie

A very expressive photo, for sure, and perfectly titled!

Thanks Maggie & Don. Patience was the key to getting this photo. I trained the 135mm manual focus lens on the old ape for about 10 minutes, not taking a shot but waiting for something to happen. Fortunately for me it did when the youngster came along. I got off three shots before the apes trundled off and the scene was over.
Cheers, Mike.

The Guardian is a newspaper first published in 1821 to serve a local population in Manchester, England. It grew to become a national, then international in scope and distribution. The online edition had about 42,000,000 unique visits last month, which placed it within the top-10 visitation rates for all online news outlets, and fourth among those that are also printed newspapers. The Guardian has been my newspaper of choice for nearly 50 years (in daily newsprint, weekly newsprint, and now online formats). So you will understand that getting something published there means a lot to me.

Well "Hey are you OK" got published in The Guardian today. I submitted it to a photographic assignment with a theme of "Contact". Out of 249 entries, it made the top fifteen. You can see those 15 here.

Cheers, Mike.

Michael_Stones said:

The Guardian is a newspaper first published in 1821 to serve a local population in Manchester, England. It grew to become a national, then international in scope and distribution. The online edition had about 42,000,000 unique visits last month, which placed it within the top-10 visitation rates for all online news outlets, and fourth among those that are also printed newspapers. The Guardian has been my newspaper of choice for nearly 50 years (in daily newsprint, weekly newsprint, and now online formats). So you will understand that getting something published there means a lot to me.

Well "Hey are you OK" got published in The Guardian today. I submitted it to a photographic assignment with a theme of "Caring". Out of 249 entries, it made the top fifteen. You can see those 15 here.

Cheers, Mike.

Click to expand...

Congratulations, Mike, well-deserved
Maggie

Michael_Stones said:

[

Well "Hey are you OK" got published in The Guardian today. I submitted it to a photographic assignment with a theme of "Caring". Out of 249 entries, it made the top fifteen. You can see those 15 here.

Click to expand...

Congrats Mike,


Looking at the images, it should have come out first or second. The elephants in the orphanage ties with yours at the top!

Asher

Well-deserved recognition!

Congrats Mike, well done, and deserved.

Cheers,
Bart

Michael_Stones said:

Most pictures of parenting depict a parent nurturing a child. In context, this one seemed to show the opposite. The old ape had behaved for some minutes as though in a down mood. Then the young came over to gently give comfort. The title expresses what might have been the question it asked.

Click to expand...

Mike,

I have to return to this picture for the shared "humanity" we feel in this creature. We seem to be able to empathize and read the child and the adults intentions and mood from the postures, close interaction and apparent comforting hug,

Theres' no doubt that primates and elephants all show these behaviors and we too respond as if we really understand their language. I think we do.

One of the characteristics I noticed from me playing soccer is that grimaces during effort are very restrained. Women soccer players, by contrast have very primitive looking wild forrest gestures. Apparently, in becoming homo sapiens, we have learned to generally mask a lot of our feelings so we can manipulate others better. We men seem to be the best at masking feelings in every day life, but women's barriers, to my observation, on the whole, tend to be more fragile and the basic facial gestures are openly expressed and frankly are quite frighteningly animalistic. So for me to see this wonderful picture of such kindness between a juvenile and an adult and display of empathy reinforces my ideas of how close we are to these magical creatures.

Thanks for having the craft to wait for the action to play out and catching this. Your training as a scientist allows you that patience to capture such a endearing photograph.

I hope you print it large and hang it in a place of honor in your home and office. This is like a parable that we can learn from and be better for it.

Asher

Many thanks everyone for your kind comments. Much appreciated.
Cheers, Mike

Asher Kelman said:

One of the characteristics I noticed from me playing soccer is that grimaces during effort are very restrained. Women soccer players, by contrast have very primitive looking wild forrest gestures. Apparently, in becoming homo sapiens, we have learned to generally mask a lot of our feelings so we can manipulate others better. We men seem to be the best at masking feelings in every day life, but women's barriers, to my observation, on the whole, tend to be more fragile and the basic facial gestures are openly expressed and frankly are quite frighteningly animalistic.
Asher

Click to expand...

I dunno about men not showing primitive looking wild forest gestures in soccer, Asher. Here's the manager of my team - a legend and fans' favourite while a player, but sadly sacked a week ago - "celebrating" the last minute winner over our local rivals. How's this for a Wild Forest Gesture

And here's a copy of one of the most famous soccer photos of all time: Vinnie Jones grabbing Paul Gasgoines cojones, with the photo signed by both players OOOOCH - that hurts

Lots of primative animalism there

Cheers
Mike

Michael_Stones said:

I dunno about men not showing primitive looking wild forest gestures in soccer, Asher. Here's the manager of my team - a legend and fans' favourite while a player, but sadly sacked a week ago - "celebrating" the last minute winner over our local rivals. How's this for a Wild Forest Gesture

And here's a copy of one of the most famous soccer photos of all time: Vinnie Jones grabbing Paul Gasgoines cojones, with the photo signed by both players OOOOCH - that hurts

Lots of primative animalism there

Cheers
Mike

Click to expand...

Wonderful examples but exceptional because they are so damn exceptional! Women, in serious and pro soccer, show such grimaces in soccer every day of the week!

Asher

You're right of course. I just needed any excuse to send the Jones/Gasgoine photo because, as you say, it's ouching exceptional.

Cheers, Mike