The one type of photography I am confident with is zoo photography. While I am no expert, I HAVE spent countless hours at the zoo with some success, so I’d like to share my tips and tricks.
The number one requirement for zoo photography is the love of your subject. It truly does reflect in the photographs, as you become aware of the nature of the animal, what expressions do the animal justice and produce a compelling photo and what poses are natural and classic to the animal. It is much easier to predict when to click the shutter and capture that expression when you have spent a solid amount of time learning the animal’s behaviour.
Number two - learn your zoo. This is essential, as there are many things to learn about the Zoo in relation to your photography.
A) Find out the best times for each enclosure in response to the lighting. For example, I know that at Melbourne Zoo, that the Gorilla enclosure is a lighting nightmare at midday because the sun hits the glass, as well as hitting the gorillas straight down, producing very glary, contrasty shots. On the other hand, the Gorillas tend to be active at the time as well. So wait for overcast days or moments so you can get the shot.
Each enclosure is facing a different direction and has different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to lighting. General rules about lighting apply, but not many zoos allow you to enter pre-dawn, so it’s often very much a case of waiting for appropriate days, or chancing it, and waiting for the right moment. KNOW that if the sun goes behind the cloud, that you’ll be heading to X enclosure. Plan ahead, even run!
Bars and fencing reflect the light, so for the best shots, you need overcast lighting. Even before sunset when the light is nice and soft, sometimes it will still reflect and you will get the shadow of the fencing over the animal. Sometimes if the shot is still very much worth grabbing, you can edit them out by cloning. As I did with this shot. This was taken when the sun was reflecting off the fence and I had two shadowy lines straight down. But the shot was so strong so I worked on the image and think the result is worth the extra effort.
B) Do NOT write off the enclosure as “hopeless” for photography without really giving it a go. Many people see a fence, animals too far away, dirty glass and give up. Most zoo enclosures are not perfect, they were not made for photography! Things get even trickier when the sun is bright and you get extreme contrast. Lighting is the number one difficulty at zoos - the best time to go is always overcast days, preferably on the weekdays (to avoid all the kids with grubby fingerprints!).
Which leads me to a point I will cover later - do not be afraid to post process. Getting great zoo shots can almost make it a necessity. No one wants to see a Lion with visible bars behind it or a nice concrete wall. If post processing can rid the photo of it - use it.
NO ONE will buy a shot of animal with visible zoo ’stuff’ behind it - bars, man made toys, people. NO matter how in focus the animal is, at the end of the day it will look like an amateur point and shoot shot if you have a photo of a Tiger with a concrete wall behind it.
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