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Christian Meermann / Stories

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Eye Contact

Published May 6th, 2012

I realized today that many of my recent animal shots show animals that look (almost) straight into the viewer's eyes. I find that this adds an enormous depth to the image because it adds so much personality and yes, even soul to the animals. Suddenly, they are more than fierce and dangerous or cute and cuddly beings. When I look into their eyes, I realize they are respectable creatures with their own perception of the world - which is not necessarily primitive and mindless. On the contrary.
So far, the focus the eye contact has been coincidental, but having come to the above conclusions I will consciously try to shoot more eye contact photos. I am looking forward to exploring where this might take me.

Lioness

Taken Hamburg's zoo, the renowned Tierpark Hagenbeck.

April 13th, 2012
Nikon D80
220mm / f/5.6 / 1/250 sec

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Watusi on Black

April 7th, 2012
Nikon D80
95mm / f/5.6 / 1/100 sec
Gelsenkirchen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany / 51°32′N 7°6′E
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Bactrian Camel on Black

A typical on-black-portrait. I like how the fur structure is brought out by the b&w treatment. I also like this shot because the camel is looking straight into the viewers eyes. I did lots of camel shots, but they all don't cut it because the camel is looking elsewhere.
Enjoy.

April 1st, 2012
Nikon D80
300mm / f/7.1 / 1/320 sec
Gelsenkirchen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany / 51°32′N 7°6′E
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Red Eye

Everybody seems to be fixing red eyes these days. I took a slightly different approach and created one. Interesting how a such a tiny part of the image can add such an amount of power to an image.

Speaking about color, I had to convert this to black&white in order to get this kind of grey in the elephant's skin. I had no idea how many shades of different colors are hidden in an elephant's skin, even though they are usually seen as grey animals.

April 13th, 2012
Nikon D80
260mm / f/9 / 1/500 sec
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany / 53°35′N 9°56′E
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Hyena On Black

Even ugly fellows like hyenas can become beautiful when converted to black & white. In this particular image, I like how the beast seems to be smiling at the camera.