Zoo Photography, Part 2

Before I get to the processing part, some more random tips and hints.

- Don’t plan to visit most of the zoo on one day! I visit approximately 6 enclosures per visit. This gives me ample time at each enclosure to observe behaviour and simply wait. The great apes in particular are not always active, but there are usually bursts of interesting behaviour that create photographic gems. Grooming and affection shots between mother and son, playful behaviour – none of this occurs constantly or the second you turn up at the enclosure – you have to wait.
Patience is what seperates most people from getting a special zoo shot.

This photo is a good example of patience. Gorillas (and most of the primates) dislike eye contact, and so generally avoid it with the crowd. And so this male Gorilla (Motaba) was seated facing away from the crowd for a good forty minutes. I waited the whole time, most of it with my focus locked and finger on the shutter (and yes, cramps!) and he finally turned around…for about three seconds! Have the photo you want in mind – in this case I knew I wanted the slightly turned head and all I had to do was wait and hope. If I hadn’t known what I wanted, I would likely have had my camera turned off waiting for him to get up and do something exciting, rather than waiting and watching for subtle behaviour.

This brings me to another point, with the apes especially. Respect for the animal. As with a human portrait, people can look silly or awkward sometimes. Is that the photo you’d show publically? Of course not. The same thing happens with animals. I generally do not keep photographs which demean the animal and make it look “ugly” or awkward in any sense. While some people might find these shots funny, I treat animal portraits in the same way I’d treat a human portrait and show each creature in its best light. This doesn’t mean throw away all “funnies”, innocent funnies and playful shots are great. It’s a subjective line and totally up to the photographer.

As mentioned earlier, learning your zoo is essential. Learning each species you want to photography is also the key. It is much easier to build a solid collection of Orang-utan shots if you know what kind of behaviours they display are common, unique, frequent or rare. You begin to recognise behaviours, making it easier to choose a correct composition in advance. Knowing the basics about ape behaviour and the strength of the bond between mother and child for example, means your focus for a few visits can BE that relationship.

In summary -

Learn your Zoo – enclosures (strengths and weaknesses) best time for lighting on each enclosure.
Learn your Species – Common, and expected behaviours and classic poses.
Learn the individual animals – I now recognise many of the animals and can tell Julia the Gorilla from Motaba the Gorilla. They each have their own common behaviours that you can depend on and look for.

A word about equipment – SLRs are best (to be honest, essential) for real zoo photography. A 300mm lens is best, 200mm will work for some enclosures, but will fall short of blocking out the fencing for some depending on the aperture. I use a Canon EOS 50d and used to use the Canon 70-300 IS but have since sold it for a Canon 70-200 F4 L. Despite the latter being shorter, it focuses a LOT better at zoos and a lot more accurately and with the 50D’s megapixel count I can crop without losing much image quality at all.

Next entry I will talk about processing the images!