Volunteer photographer NJ Wight talks about the first time she met Newton!

njwight:

This is my pal Newton. He is one of the rhesus macaques that now live at the Fauna Sanctuary. I love hanging out in the lush tropical gardens with him and his pals.

This is a special picture for me for a few reasons. One, it was the first time I met Newton and he greeted me with a little leftover tomato sauce on his beard-being a fellow Italian foodie, I bonded with him right away. Two, he was very curious and wouldn’t stand back and give me any room to shoot him properly so he forced me to work on my technique of shooting through wires. I was very happy to catch him in this one without the noticeable caging. The images from this session were corrupted afterwards and I lost all of them…except a smaller jpeg of this one. So, it is one of only 3 photos from our first meeting, which makes it special. Lastly, I love it because I am now getting to know Newton and his friends Darla and Sophie, spending more time at the monkey house photographing them. I am learning their personalities. Shooting them is so completely different than the chimps. I am so privileged to spend time talking and interacting with all of these great creatures.

If you haven’t checked out Fauna’s tumblr, please do!