Taking pictures in zoos
Zoos are among the best practice fields for trying out
You will find subjects that vary in size, in color, in movement speed in a Zoo. Great place to test your gear.
- Variety: There is quite a bit of variety of interesting animals. They come in all sizes (elephant to insects), some move very slow (tortoises) and some are very fast (hummingbirds), they can be shiny, furry/fuzzy, can blend into the environment or stand out. Enclosures could be indoors with more difficult light or outside. All this gives you a great variety of subjects to take pictures of
- Good access to subjects: Since the idea in a Zoo is that visitors can see the animals, the enclosures are designed to make them visible, and most will allow different vantage points, which is important for example when you want to position yourself with relation to the sun.
- Great subjects: Zoos, by definition, house a collection of interesting animals.
- Zoom friendly: Long lenses and zooms are particularly useful in a zoo setting.
- Meet other gearheads: Many photography enthusiasts will be packing their gear and heading to the zoo to try out things. It is a great place to see a wide variety of photographic equipment in action. If you are interested, talk to them, most gearheads love talking about their equipment.
- Cages: I am just talking about photography here, but trying to take a picture through a wire fence will not be so easy. The general idea is to be able to come as close as possible to the cage so that the wire mesh is barely in focus.
- Similar to cages but much worse are aquariums. I have basically given up trying these. Again the same principle, getting close to the glass helps with reflections. But you would also need something that can focus really close for best results. It does not help that both the glass and the water are usually quite dirty and the light usually fools the auto white balance settings.
- When compared to museums there will be much more people in a zoo. be patient, there are also plenty of places in a zoo that do not interest the general public as much where you can practice easily.
Tips
- No flash, learn how to turn off the flash of your camera, animals really do not need to have a flash explode into their face.
- This is a place for long lenses and zooms as well as macros. Wide angle and mid range zooms are not as useful.
- Most zoos are also a botanical garden, there will be many interesting plants and flowers.
- See also my pictures from various zoos as well as the zoo closest to me Zurich Zoo
Gallery
Some modern zoos will have enclosures where you can be with the animals. There will be no barriers allowing you to take great pictures. This parrot is in Zoo Zurich.
This colorful gecko in Zoo Zurich is one of the great things about experimenting in a zoo. Fantastic looking subjects that you do not see everyday. This is also an enclosure where you and animals share the same space. One particular problem in this place (Masoala hall) is that it is a tropic forest and it is very hot and humid. The large Nikon 200-500 I used in this shot needs almost half an hour until it gets to the correct temperature so that it stops fogging up. So sometimes you also need to be patient with your equipment and not always with the animals.
The incredibly cute and equally lazy Red Panda, here in Zoo Zurich. Some modern zoos can have enclosures that do not have visible barriers between you and the animals and this is how you can get clearer shots. You need to know the patterns of some animals if you want to catch them (a Red Panda sleeps a lot for example). Of course this is nothing compared to what you would have to do when you are in nature. Plus staff in the zoo will usually give you tricks, when to come and where to look for those harder to find animals.
This is a baby Manul, photographed in Paris Menagerie. One of the cutest things you can see. This was taken behind a wire mesh, which explains the softer central part. I positioned the camera so that the head was focussed through the clearing. Still the wire mesh effects the picture quite a bit.
An otter in Zoo Zurich. Again an enclosure where you can shoot pictures without any barriers in between. Otters however, move quite fast and are not always around when you look for them. You are always happy if you can get one to pose for a bit.
These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.