Buzzin Round the Zoo

Now and again I like to make a visit to my local zoo at Chester. Is is a very good zoo and they a operate a large number of  important conservation and education programmes. This zoo holds many fond memories as it is one of the places I taught myself photography. I use to have a season ticket and so would pop in for an hour or two and go and spend some time at a particular enclosure. I think this zoo provide me with a valuable education as overcoming the constraints of the enclosures to produce natural looking images, taught me to think carefully about my position and how it effects the setting and composition and the importance of backgrounds. This is still important in my wildlife photography.  In those early days I would often rush around the zoo wanting to photograph everything, these days I take a more relaxed approach on my visits.

I prefer to visit in the winter when the zoo is quieter and if the sun shines it is softer. Mind you the low sun angle can create some awkward long shadows across the enclosures. This post is about two visits I have made in the last 6 months. The first was a brief afternoon back in November when I dropped my better half off in Chester to meet some friends for some retail therapy whilst I had a couple of hours wandering the zoo. High Street shops or looking at exotic animals, well there is not much competition there really.  So here are a couple of images from that first trip.

An adult cheetah prowling its large enclosure and one of the three youngsters rim lit by the low winter sun.

Staying with the big cats, the male Asiatic Lion nearly always provides some good photo opportunities, when he is awake, with this one given the black and white treatment.

Photographing in the monkey house is always difficult due to the limited light but can produce some interesting images with a bit of patience.

Crested Macaques

The dominant male Mandrill. I have always been fascinated with these large monkeys and found myself transfixed watching this one wandering what was going on behind those eyes.

Mandrill

My second visit was quite recently and unusually an all day one. My very good friend Andy Rouse, together with Andrew James, recently set up a very interesting photography website called Fotobuzz. They have tried to create something different and have put in a huge amount of work in to creating a very slick website with strong feeling of community and fun that is aimed at improving people's photography. I have been contributing to this on a monthly basis in a section about days out with your camera. Really it would take me far too long here to explain so here is a link Fotobuzz , if you want to see what it is about. This trip to Chester Zoo was the first Fotobuzz meetup with around 40 members from all over the UK attending. Given that it was just down the road I promised I would call in to help out. After an initial talk, accompanied by some coffee and pastries, about zoo photography, Andy went on to show some images and provide some background on his latest wildlife photography projects. Before being let lose with their cameras around the zoo, some help was given to people who had queries about setting up new cameras. A great day was had by all and I am sure many learnt some new techniques. There was certainly plenty of smiles when we all congregated together at the end of the day before departing. A few images from my wandering around the zoo that day are below.

Asiatic male lion again, this time in colour.

Emerald Starling in the Tropic Realm. Beautiful birds in their metallic green and purple colours. However, the colourful bird awards must go to the Nicobar Pigeon. Not all pigeons are equal and this must rank amongst the most beautiful.

A brief visit into the small aquarium and a Cardinal with an anemone.

Glossy Ibis and Black Vulture

The new Komodos.

My favourite images of the session was of one of the giraffes. The black background here created by some of that careful positioning I mentioned earlier.

Blackpool Zoo

Last weekend I took a trip with Dawn up to Blackpool Zoo for the first time. I am not sure why I have not visited before but it is probably due to having the excellent Chester Zoo just down the road. It was a a wonderful spring day with clear skies overhead but not ideal for photography with some intense harsh sunlight. My preferred conditions for zoo trips are bright days with white cloud above which acts like a large diffuser and removes the problems caused by high contrast. I also find zoo trips most productive when I go alone as I can make several circuits of the zoo which gives increased opportunity to photograph animals that were not showing on the first lap, allows you to spend an extended time with a particular animal and means you can visit particular areas when the light is in optimal position for different enclosures. On this trip I just packed the 300mm lens and just took a few photos while wandering around. Generally a zoom lens is much better at zoos as the flexibility in focal length is a handy feature for dealing with different enclosures.

I will start off with an animal that I have not seen or photographed before. I was really constrained by the enclosure particularly given that their long claws had scratched a broad band of the perspex that I was shooting through. So apologies for it not being that good a photo.
In the beginning there was a word...and the word was Aardvark.

Photographing animals in zoos tends to produce quite a lot of static portraits so I was pleased to find this Red-necked Wallaby springing around its enclosure.

An inquisitive animal which seems to be present in most UK zoos the Oriental Short-clawed Otter.

Moving across to the big cats which are always very photogenic. These two photographs show how getting some action, even as in this case if it is just a yawn, can make the image that more interesting.
A standard portrait of an African Lioness

and in mid-yawn

I never fail to be amazed by the sheer size and power of an Amur Tiger they are very impressive and beautiful animals. Sadly also highly threatened in the wild and in this Year of the Tiger I would urge you to try and support conservation groups that are trying to prevent their extinction. A world without tigers would be a very sad one.

I also photographed a few birds on the circuit around the zoo that included a Night heron, Eastern White Pelican, some free range Peacocks which are difficult to resist with their dazzling colours and African Spoonbill.

Finishing off with a couple of photographs from the reptile collection which proved a struggle due to the lack of available light.
The lurking eyes of a Yacare Caiman

If you ever find yourself out an about in North America and looking at one of these at this distance then its time to take a sharp exit!. An Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake.