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2005: Animals in their Environment - Highly Commended Print

Thomas Endlein Enlarge image Orang-utan in the rain

Thomas Endlein (Germany)

Orang-utan in the rain

It started out as a lopsided relationship - the human, Thomas Endlein, doing the photographing, the orang-utan being photographed. But one misty morning, nature made equals of these two apes. Thomas had spent many hours perched on a small wooden observation platform at the top of a huge dipterocarp tree in Sabah, Borneo. Orang-utans regularly rambled through the nearby canopy, swinging from impossibly thin lianas to reach fruit. But on this morning, there was a heavy downpour. "I had a feeling of companionship," Thomas said. "We waited together at the top of our respective trees, both of us soaked to the skin. Two intelligent primates at the mercy of the elements."

Canon EOS 1N RS with 100-400mm lens; 1/30 sec at f4.5; Fujichrome Provia 400; remote-control release, tripod.

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