Evil, ugly fella
I was at the Jurong Bird Park with two photography buddies, and one of them remarked that this bird looked very ugly.
True. But I took one shot just for the heck of it. I got home and edited my pictures, and decided to turn some of the colorful flamingos and parrots to b/w just to see how they looked.
Then I remembered this Ugly Fella. I cropped away some distracting leaves on the left to create a square image, transformed it to black and white, increased the contrast and…
Lo and behold! This turned out to be my best image out of more than a hundred photos taken during that outing.
He looks kinda evil, doesn’t he? Or maybe it’s a she?
There is a spirital lesson in this whole episode. It can be found in the Biblical quote: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
Now to find a theme to submit this to... Perhaps JPG can start an "evil" theme or an "ugly" theme.
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Jurong Bird Park, Singapore. July 2008
UPDATE: 5 August 2008
I went back to the Jurong Birdpark to see if I can capture more evil-looking images of this bird, but without success.
Meanwhile, I found out it is called a Shoebill, is related to the stork family and it comes from east Africa.
I also noticed that the Jurong Bird Park features this fella, in a friendlier pose, in its advertisements on the back of public buses. LOL!
25 responses
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Richard Seah said (28 Jul 2008):
Ha ha!
Mine, too, initially. As I said, I also thought the bird was, er, pretty ugly and had taken only one pix just for the heck of it.
Thanks for the compliment :-) -
Kathee Brown gave props (29 Jul 2008):
Richard, this is very cool. Not so much ugly but strong. Great shot!
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Richard Seah said (29 Jul 2008):
Well, now he / she looks strong.
But when my friends and I first saw it walking around the enclosure, it sure looked ugly!
Thnaks Kathee for the props. -
Gary Joseph Cohen gave props (29 Jul 2008):
Man, you got the gift!!!
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J Battaglia gave props (29 Jul 2008):
great shot!
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Debby Adler gave props (29 Jul 2008):
What a look!
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Christopher Long gave props (30 Jul 2008):
Fantastic shot!
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Caitlin Heath said (30 Jul 2008):
evil ugly fella looks fantastic in your image!
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Penny Nannini gave props (31 Jul 2008):
perfect cropping and b&w was the way to go, good job!
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J. Harris Blacklist gave props (2 Aug 2008):
Crazy Outstanding photograph Richard! so much character
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Richard Seah said (2 Aug 2008):
Coming from you, "Blacklisted", this is real honour :-) Thanks
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Dom Ioele said (18 Aug 2008):
Great lighting and composition...
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Rebecca MacPherson said (21 Aug 2008):
what an amazing bird!! he's not ugly, he's intense!
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Frank Filippoupolitis said (15 Oct 2008):
what a great portrait!
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Justin McCormick gave props (4 Dec 2008):
One of my favorite photos on JPG.
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Istvan Kadar said (13 May 2009):
I love it!
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Bentzion Elisha gave props (13 Jul 2009):
beautiful close up.
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David Bourg gave props (31 Jul 2009):
Absolutely incredible!
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Giselle Goloy gave props (14 Oct 2009):
very scary looking! great job on capturing this!
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Željko Jelenski said (5 Dec 2009):
Wow great photos!"!!
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Andrew Dacay said (6 Dec 2009):
nice one!
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Victor Bezrukov said (7 Dec 2009):
so beautiful portrait !
and lighting work very well ! -
Nina Hüttmann gave props (7 Dec 2009):
great lighting, amazing shot
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Al Stiegman gave props (10 Dec 2009):
Greatnshot Richard, you have my vote.
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Debby Adler gave props (10 Dec 2009):
Wow. powerful.
