San Diego Zoo

hey guys, I went to the zoo last week, thought I'd share a few of my best pics. let me know what you think!

1.

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It may be just me but I prefer seeing the pics unframed I do like the pics but the frame is distracting. 6 & 7 are my favs

that's interesting, most people I've talked to prefer a frame, and I do as well.

Great work. I went awhile back to the San Diego zoo and I found the fences tough to deal with...

bryno74 wrote in post #3717564
Great work. I went awhile back to the San Diego zoo and I found the fences tough to deal with...

ohhh yah, definitely. I had a lot of pictures that would have turned out great get ruined by fences...

the first one is actually shot through a fence, luckily you can't see it much (if at all, I can't at least), and the last was shot through glass, no reflections though.

Yea zoos are tough, Fences,dirty glass, and lighting. I went and saw the Pandas at the SD Zoo a few yrs back so far thats the best zoo I've been to.

Gliderparentntn wrote in post #3717611
Yea zoos are tough, Fences,dirty glass, and lighting. I went and saw the Pandas at the SD Zoo a few yrs back so far thats the best zoo I've been to.

yah the pandas were the only animals we didn't get to see... I think there was just one born so they were all gone taking care of it or something..

Nice set of shots. I like 2 and 7 the best. And yes glass and fences are a pain!

I think all are GREAT!

Question I have for people more knowlegable then me is,

In #3 the majority of the bird is in focus, but the beak is not due to depth of field. IF he did not have the light to increase his DOF should he have focused on the beak, eye, or the majority of the body since that what we seemost of?

My wife works at the San Diego Zoo, so I spend a lot of time there. I've been shooting there for 25 years or more (lived in San Diego for 42 years).

A couple of years ago I wrote a brief tutorial for one of our local forums that gives some tip about shooting in zoos. If anyone's interested, I'll throw it up as a post...

superdiver wrote in post #3721651
Question I have for people more knowlegable then me is,

In #3 the majority of the bird is in focus, but the beak is not due to depth of field. IF he did not have the light to increase his DOF should he have focused on the beak, eye, or the majority of the body since that what we seemost of?

Not necessarily more knowledgeable...but here goes...

The eye is the most important in my opinion, since our eyes are drawn naturally to the part we can relate with, the head and eye. He could have focused slightly to the left of the eye, and the DOF would cover the beak, the eye, and part of the body, but then some of the nice detail in the feathers would be lost. I think it was handled perfectly.

#1 is quite the arrangement, I think I like it best, even with the fence in the background.

thanks for all the compliments guys; it was the first time shooting animals for me, and with only a 70-200 as a zoom, getting as close as I liked to some of them was a bit difficult. #2 especially, I had to crop a lot.

JWright wrote in post #3721996
My wife works at the San Diego Zoo, so I spend a lot of time there. I've been shooting there for 25 years or more (lived in San Diego for 42 years).

A couple of years ago I wrote a brief tutorial for one of our local forums that gives some tip about shooting in zoos. If anyone's interested, I'll throw it up as a post...

that would be great if you could do that, I'd be very interested in reading it!

jnev wrote in post #3723854
thanks for all the compliments guys; it was the first time shooting animals for me, and with only a 70-200 as a zoom, getting as close as I liked to some of them was a bit difficult. #2 especially, I had to crop a lot.


that would be great if you could do that, I'd be very interested in reading it!

Sent you a PM...

Not that you'd benefit much from the article. You seem to have it nailed down quite well.

I personally think it would be a lot better for most photographers if they would just do wider fences or all glass, it would make it so much easier to get great shots.

Great shots!

Note to JWright.. I would also love to see your zoo tutorial too .. just went to the zoo with my new XSi a couple of weeks ago, but definitely will plan on going again to get more practice!