Tips On..<Animals at Zoo>

• Bring a long telephoto lense, and a tripod. If you have Stabilization on the camera or lense could let u get away from the tripod
• Remember that if you bring a tripod turn off Stabilization
• There are 3 types of shots
  • Wide angle shots that show the animal with the environment
  • An animal portrait that fills the frame with the animal's head
  • And a single animal aspect, like a paw
• Try to get animals showing movement, are more interesting than the animal doing nothing
• Also, try and find a position where it doesnt give away that you are on a zoo, such as fences, people, posts, etc
• Getting ready of cage wires
  • Select Aperture priority in combination with a wide aperture
  • Move as close to the fence as u can
  • If any parts of the wire show up in a way of "fogging" increase the contrast in post production and this should fix the problem
• Shooting trough glass
  • Eliminate reflection if you are using flash angle tis at 45 degrees to minimize the amount of light that will bounce back at you
  • Take the lens hood off if u are not using flash and shoot with the front of the lense pressed against the glass, reflections should disappear, make sure to have your UV filter on to protect the lense
• Focus on the eyes of the animal, if the animal is interested on something and following with its eyes you can get a great show of its eyes when is targeting something
• Talk to zookepers, they will give you great information o when an animal is most likely to be moving or in action.
• Understand animal behavior it will give you a heads start on movements that the animal will make. (i.e walking around a cage, drinking water, etc)

Get close to the animals.. even the scary ones:

Try to make your shot as close to wildlife as possible, avoiding posts, fences, and wire