Zoo Experts?!

Alright so after reading through some post here I need pointers! Went to the "local zoo" here a couple days ago and took a couple photo's... Non of the pictures that I see posted on here have the bars in the picture (Pic 1)... Help... I was able to pinpoint focus a couple times, but this gives me the lines (Pic 2) in the picture when uploaded to Lightroom... I need advice PLEASE!!

I try to get as close to the wire/bars as I can, and hopefully the animal is not close to the bars. I try to shoot as wide open as I can.

Tip from another
"1. Shooting through fences
One of the big challenges at a zoo is to clear the fence and, for the sportier ones amongst you, that doesn't mean jumping over it. Animals in cages tend to be surrounded by a fine wire mesh that often rises above eye level. So you often have to take photos with the cage in front of you. If you don't adjust the camera's settings and position you will have poor photos with a blurred grid. To compensate you need to move as close as possible to the fence. Position the camera so the lens is pointing through one of the gaps or, when the fence has small gaps, make sure that the face of the animal you're photographing is in a gap.

If the camera has manual exposure control, adjust the aperture so it's at a wider setting, this will reduce depth-of-field (front to back sharpness) and throw the fence out of focus. Hopefully the fence will be so blurred it won't be seen in the photo.

If you can't shoot through or throw the fence out of focus you can often clone it out later using an image editing program. "

Hope that helped.. I always just did the maneuvering till I got the animal right inside a square in the fence and shot through it. Fencing is always an issue at the zoo (along with glass)..

Not a lot of wiggle room there between the gaps though I imagine... Have to be SPOT on?!

Oh... And Thanks for the tips...

+1 on all of the above. It's also worth noting if and how light is striking the mesh or wires. A slight adjustment of shooting angle through a better shaded portion of the enclosure (hopefully without blowing your composition) may save a bit of aggravation (and Photoshopping).

Also see many people (of course, no one here on POTN...) shooting with their flash activated, no doubt resulting in nicely exposed captures of the enclosure mesh, wire, bars, etc.

Even these had the fencing... And you can still see the lines... I think I just "missed" on them all... I had my 2 year old with me as well, so juggling her and the camera on a 20 degree day was tough, but she loved being there so pictures were secondary...