Yellow-cheeked gibbons can be difficult to photograph because they spend much of their time high in the forest canopy. I was watching and photographing a family at Cat Tien National Park when I noticed this male settling onto a branch.

As he stretched out his arms and legs and relaxed, there was something wonderfully familiar about the pose. I moved carefully until I could see all four limbs clearly and waited for the composition to come together.

The light presented another challenge. The sky behind him was bright and cloudless, while his face was almost black. I had to choose between preserving detail in the sky and being able to see his expression. I chose the gibbon, deliberately allowing the sky to become overexposed so that I could retain detail in his face.

The result was a photograph that felt both natural and unexpectedly humorous—a wild gibbon completely at ease in the canopy.

The photograph later became a finalist in the 2025 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards