Taking Photos of Zoological Animals

by

  Mark Ant

Well i see a lot more wildlife being taken at zoological parks and conservation parks. Its always worth taking a rubber lense cap in your camera bag ? Reason is if you fit this on the end of your camera you can then lean in against a glass exhibit and take your photo without the gare or flashback of a flash if you use one, ( BUT only do this on manual focus or it will upset the auto functions on the camera as it'll have no where to move to focus ). This can be used on insect houses or any glass fronted exhibit even fish tanks ! The other tip is most other exhibits have wire fencing, yes the wire is a pain for most people. If you use a larger lense i.e 300mm or more then the chance is you'll get past the fence with your focusing ( unless the subject is close to you ), and try to focus throught the hole in the fencing putting any distortion to the outside of the image. The other way if you dont possess a big slr with 300mm or more zoomage, is to get your subject lined up looking at them through a gap / hole in the fencing as well to put the fence distortion on the outside of your image. If you look through the view finder you'll see wher the fencing wll ghost your image. So then its a case of where to place the ghosting fence to be cut of in photoshop or edited out even, thus giving you the main image you want to capture. Its also worth looking at the fencing as some fencings wll produce a shine back like galv fencing or black plastic coated so look for a bit of fencing thats got some shade on it to reduce this glare. I always try to go as a team to do my photos in these places as you can focus and your partner can cause a distraction to attract them. The best way i've found ( if you read the tips thread on zoo photography you'll see it works ) is a bunch of keys !, 1000's of people whoop, whistle, kick the fence, but only one person rattles his kys ? the food bringer - keys to a animal will normally inply food / keeper and so will look to confirm the noise. I hope this is some help to members, its helped me get some good shots at zoo parks.