Zoo Photography: Patience

It's been wisely said for ages that patience is a virtue, and there is perhaps no profession in which this is most evident than photography. Photographers know that you have to anticipate and wait. wait. wait. and more wait. Zoo photography requires the same thing. You have to know your subject, anticipate what they will do, and put yourself in the best position to get the shot you want.

Yesterday I visited the zoo for the first time in a few weeks and I only had about 90 minutes before closing time. I couldn't afford to see the whole zoo so I made a beeline for the animals I like to shoot the most around this time of the year.

The prairie dogs were my first stop. Prairie dogs, around this time, have shiny brown coats that look best under a cloudless sun. When I reached them, the sun was bobbing back and forth behind some patchy clouds. I waited until I got the light I wanted, took a few shots, and was fairly happy with the few shots I got. These guys are hands-down my favorite subjects year-round at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

Next, I visited the African Aviary where I was rewarded with one of the subjects that have not given me many good shot opportunities: The Little Blue Heron. This little beautiful bird tends to stay near the fence where it's impossible to get a good shot that doesn't look like it was taken at the zoo. This time, however, it was in the middle of the exhibit and allowed me to get pretty good shots.

I was also lucky that it was a relatively quiet day at the zoo and the animals seemed more relaxed.

After that I hung around the gazelles before heading to the lions. I hung around hoping for a good shot, knowing that on cool days, they are more likely to move around in a particular location. I hunkered down and waited for my shot. I wasn't disappointed.

Patience doesn't mean you will get the shot that day, it just means that you might get your shot a few months down the road. Be patient, anticipate, and always keep hope that the animals will be kind enough to give you a good shot.

***Please note that I don't agitate animals. Hassan, the lion, wasn't snarling at me. This is the back end of a yawn.

Tweet

Share

Zoo Photography: Eastern Screech Owl

All owls are fascinating creatures to me but the eastern screech owl is even more so. For starters, it's really small, which makes me wonder how it survives as a predator. While watching one of them at the zoo today, I got a chance to see these creatures' predatory nature.

As I was talking to the keeper about another one of the animals, a house sparrow flew nearby collecting duck down feathers. All of a sudden she perked up, raised her pointed ear tufts, and her attention intensely focused on the sparrow.

Here it is giving me the mean look moments before the house sparrow made its appearance.

And here it is intently sizing up the sparrow. 

Did you know: Nestling Screech-owls fight fiercely among themselves for food, and sometimes even kill and eat their smallest sibling. (from http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Screech-owl/lifehistory)

Tweet

Share

Good-Bye, Sophie

I believe all of life is connected and communicates through energy, both good and bad. Whenever I visit zoos to take pictures, I always ask the animals to give me good shots and make sure to thank them afterwards. I believe animals know and understand our intentions, and this transcends whichever language we might use to communicate with them. My mom is also like me in this manner as she tenderly addresses animals in Russian. I jokingly tell her these animals don't speak Russian, but I know they understand in their own way. Sophie, the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore's snowy owl was one of the animals I made sure to talk to on my visits.

I actually never got to take many pictures of her, as I was still studying the best way to shoot her exhibit, but I always stopped by to say hi and ask if she could give me good shot opportunities. She flew once but I was too slow to take the picture. She gave me other opportunities for good images but I always held out hope that she would fly for me again, but today the zoo announced she had passed away over the weekend. Complications from medical care.

Good-bye, Sophie, we'll get those pictures in the life after. Til then!!!

Tweet

Share

Zoo Photography: Flamingos

Few birds are as attractive to zoo-goers as flamingos. They're large, pretty, weird, and just so alluring. They're also fun to photograph.
While the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, my local zoo, has them, they're not available for visitor viewing. To see them I have to drive to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, which is about an hour's drive from where I live. Due to this, I haven't been able to go as many times as I would like to try different shooting techniques on them.

There are several problems that I ran into while shooting the National Zoo's flamingos. The first was that the bright, undiffused sunlight reflects harshly off the bird's feathers. It's like shooting a bright flower in bright sunlight, you lose detail in the subject.

The second issue was the dark shadow background in the flamingos' exhibit. This might actually have helped mask the unnatural environment, but it created a very contrasting image, not to mention playing tricks on the camera's sensor.

I will have to go photography them on a cloudy day to see if it makes any difference. Normally, I prefer to shoot bright animals, especially birds, on cloudy days because you are able to get details in the feathers. I would also like to see if shooting at f/8 instead of f/5.6 would make a difference in the final images.

It will take some time to figure all this out for myself as I only go to the National Zoo about once a month, compared to 3-4 trips a month I make to the Maryland Zoo, so I would love to hear from those who have mastered photographing these beautiful birds, and those who have run into other issues photographing them.

Tweet

Share

Eyes

I apologize for the long delay, but between going out to shoot and staying in to write and edit those select shots I am including in a couple of upcoming works, I haven't had much time to share some tips on here...so, for that I apologize.

Today I want to point out the importance of making your subjects eyes clear and how Photoshop, or Lightroom, can help you. Rule one in animal photography is to have the eyes in focus and clear...as beady as you can make them...but sometimes the light situation or an off exposure will make your pictures come with darkened, unclear eyes. Notice I'm not blaming the lenses since there isn't much we can do about that at the moment because even those with the sharpest lenses do come up with photographs with darkened eyes. So, without further ado, let's see the differences...

Canon 500D (Rebel T1i) with EF-S 55-250mm IS @200mm 1/640s F/5.6 ISO 100

You can click on the image to enlarge it and you will see the eye still somewhat dark and unattractive. Now, I have not adjusted the exposure or any other setting, but I want to stress the importance of shooting RAW especially as a beginner with less than good lenses or spot-on exposure settings. 

Now let's take a look at this one.

Click on the picture to enlarge it and see if there you notice the difference. I did increase the exposure, but I also used the Adjustment Brush in Camera Raw to focus on the eye and increase its contrast, clarity, and exposure. To up the color, I increased saturation all the way and a little on the brightness, too. That's the good thing about the Adjustment Brush, I could select and isolate the eye and work on it without altering the rest of the picture.
Now, let's take look at another photograph.

Canon 500D (Rebel T1i) with EF-S 55-250mm IS @250mm 1/640s F/7.1 ISO 100

For this set, everything is the same except for the eye and all that was needed to bring out its beauty was an extra isolated touching up using the Adjustment Brush in Camera Raw. You can see how its color contrast well with the rest of the picture and how it livens up the bird and the photograph in general. 

To end it all, here's a little something I made using this image to go along with today's subjects. Enjoy and, remember, to focus on the eye.

Tweet

Share