This is the smallest primate in the world. It is a tarsier, and these guys live in Indonesia and the Philippines. They are the size of your fist, and they are obviously nocturnal because their large eyes are adapted to seeing in the dark. When I first became aware of tarsiers, I really wanted to photograph one. Using the Internet, I contacted an American researcher living in Indonesia whose field of study are these tiny primates, and on my next trip I met him and he was nice enough to get me close to these secretive animals to get a decent shot. My only option for illumination at night was an on-camera flash, which I normally don’t like because this kind of light is dimensionless and harsh. In the dense foliage of the rainforest, though, setting up an off-camera flash just isn’t feasible. I took this shot before I went digital with a Mamiya RZ 67, 350mm telephoto lens, a Metz 60 CT-4 flash, and Fujichrome Velvia 100. The settings were not recorded, but based on how I used to shoot, the shutter speed would have been 1/125 and the aperture f/8.
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