Taking Pictures at the Zoo

By Stephanie Simpson | Posted on September 8, 2006

Double Tiger In the September, 2006 issue of Digital Camera Magazine, there was a long article about shooting great pictures at the zoo. I skimmed the article and put it aside for another day, not thinking that I’d be going to the zoo anytime soon. But I was wrong. While up in Washington last week, we stumbled across a small zoo that specialized in big cats. That’s when I wished I’d read the article!

But here are some tips of my own for shooting pictures at the zoo.

More often than not, the animals will be housed behind chain link fences or other similar barricades. These don’t make for the prettiest of pictures. But there are ways around that.

My first suggestion is to use your longest lens. For these pictures (all taken through a chain link fence), I used my Nikon D70s and a 210mm lens. Point-and-shoot users should zoom in a lot. Due to the properties of depth of field, the foreground fence will go very out of focus on a long lens, instantly improving your shots by making the chain link fence seem to disappear.

You can see the difference here between a long, medium and wide lenses on the same shot. I stood in virtually the same position for each of these three shots and used 3 different focal lengths. You can see that the most successful shot was made using my longest lens - a 210mm. I then boosted the contrast and desaturated the image in Photoshop.

Tiger Tiger Tiger

My next suggestion is to make sure you shoot through an area of fence that is in shadow. When light hits the fence, it will draw a lot of attention to the fence, and detract from your animal subject.

Tiger Whiskers Next, be aware of the light hitting the animal’s face. It’s better to be patient for the animal to move around to another area where the light is better than to take a mediocre picture. Here, the light gives a soft backlight to the tiger, popping him (or her?) out of the background.

A lion and a tongue Sometimes, you will not be able to do anything about the bars or where the animal is in the cage, but the moment is there. Here is a lion and a tongue – enough said.

I’ve since gone back and reviewed the Digital Camera article about shooting at the zoo, and the problem with the piece is that the zoo they visited has lots of opportunities for shooting the animals unhindered by fences. The zoo I visited was all chain link! But their advice is good – use a tripod, be patient, get down low to the animal’s level, and bring your long lens. When shooting through glass, they recommend wiping off the glass first, and using your hand to block light from hitting the front of the glass to prevent reflections.

With this trial run, I’m anxious to go to the LA County Zoo or even down to the San Diego Zoo. For more about taking pictures at the zoo, click here and here.  For tips on shooting pictures of your dog, click here.  For tips about shooting at the aquarium, click here.

About Stephanie Simpson

Stephanie Simpson is a Los Angeles-area family and child photographer, specializing in happy shots and fun colors. She also teaches Cinematography and The Business of Film and Television at Azusa Pacific University. Visit her website at: www.ispeakfilm.com

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Comment by Тут Хумора.NET » Выпуск #265 on October 15th, 2006 at 9:28 am

[...] For Part 1 of this article and more tips on taking pictures at the zoo, click here. [...]


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wow, good tiger pictures..


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