Today I went to the Melbourne Zoo for the first time. We have around thirty something people with varying skill level. Some people have crazy DSLR with 70-200mm with extension tube, some people bring their humble entry levels, some came with compacts, and some come empty handed – they just wanted to enjoy the day.
The weather was really nice, its very rare to have sunny weather in Melbourne winter. Many people are bringing their young kids and babies to the zoo. It was packed and sometimes really hard to approach the animal enclosures from a good spot.
I managed to snap some good photos in there. Lessons to come after the showcase.
Seal. It swam really fast!
Mr Lion is really really lazy. He slept most of the day.
Monkeys playing around!
Mommy Sumatran Tiger is feeling edgy from people looking at her four cubs.
One of the tiger cubs, they are very playful!
My first butterfly house experience. There gotta be hundreds of them in that small compact enclosure.
The little one is Mali. She is the zoo's new star.
Orang utan drinking rainwater (presumably) from a plastic container 20 meters from the ground.
Practicing the monkey style kungfu
Mr Lion is finally awake, look at the angle of the light, its sunset!
Snow Leopard is one elusive cat. This is probably the best shoot I got today. It just hides between branches the whole day.
Trio racoon (?) just chilling out!
Those two crocs aren't moving at all. Probably they are statue
So, what are they doing?
This leopard is blinded on one eye!
I just love his skin texture
Lessons Learned from Melbourne Zoo
1. Go on weekday
On weekend or holiday, zoo is almost always full of people bringing their kids around. Resulting in huge queue in the cafe and huge crowd around animal enclosure. If you come during weekday, you will get all the space and angle that you need to take that awesome shot.
2. Avoid dirty glass
Glass in the zoo is most often dirty. No matter how good your DoF is, sometimes the glass just shows on the picture. Try your best to shoot through the cleaner part of the glass, or avoid it altogether.
3. Use high ISO and wide aperture
The main problem people face today at the zoo is lack of light. Even though it is a fairly sunny day, the light seldom penetrates the ground and the enclosures because of the heavy forest leaves. You really can’t depend on long shutter speed because the animals kept on moving.
Your best bet is to get good high ISO performance camera or get a really fast lens.
4. Be patient
You can’t give direction to animals. They move randomly and without any hint for you. Get your camera always ready to fire.
Today we have some really lazy bear who lie down all day and only showing its face once. We also have a very agitated cat who can’t seem to sit still, it just keep on walking around its cage. These are just some of the opportunities that you have to catch by yourself.
5. If you can’t zoom in enough, just crop it in PP
This is one thing that you just can’t workaround. My longest lens is 200mm. It is long, but sometimes (most of the time actually) not long enough. The best thing you can do during the trip is to imagine how you would crop it, and compose the scene accordingly.
Almost all of the photos you see up the are cropped a lot.
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- Cityscape Photography 1: Melbourne at night
- Photos by Night Photography Workshop Students
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