A few from the zoo for u 2 review...

Hey Folks,
Well, I headed out the Cleveland Zoo yesterday. It's the first time I've been there since I've gotten my Cactus triggers so I wanted to try a few things with lighting and such.

I actually got some really good shots...it was a good day as far as photography goes in general but I wanted to post a couple of specific ones and get some comments. In these particular 4 shots I was working with off camera flash to get something than just the average lighting.

I do want absolutely honest opinions here, but in this case I would also ask that folks bear in mind that these shots were taken through either cage bars or thru pretty nasty glass viewing windows...in other words, these weren't exactly optimum shooting conditions! LOL!!! There is a degree of softness here and there that simply couldn't be avoided because of the conditions.

Except for the stork, the other three images were all taken indoors inside the Cleveland Zoo's Rainforest.


#1

Genuinely I like them all, particularly the composition on 3 and 4.

The animal in #2 (whatever it is, I have no idea!) kind of blends in with the wall behind it. It's probably a result of the flash, right? A little contrast would help, though you acknowledge the softness. Also, I'd like it more if the whole body was in focus, instead of just the head.

I really like the stork picture. The gradient of the grass from bright green to dark green is just fantastic and the colors overall are great. Good job.

I've been thinking about these, and I like the cat the best. I would, however, like to see the shadows lifted a bit and shine a little light into those eyes.

If only the oragutan was displaying a different finger; nothing funnier than a monkey giving you the bird (well, maybe a groin hit video on AFV).

Well, the animal is a Malaysian Chevrotain, better known as a "Mouse Deer". I don't think it was the flash really as much as his "habitat" really having been done just to match his coloring. They very small animals, roughly only a foot and a half or so long and they are a favorite prey for predators in parts of Africa, India South East and Asia and as such they tend to be rather secretive to begin with. I'd be willing to guess that the zoo did his habitat that way so that he'd blend in. The flash was set up on the side and here it was really only supplementing the natural light and he was basically laying right against the wall...one of the draw backs of working with critters is you can't tell them "please step about a foot this way so your not right next to the background", LOL!

Also as far as the body being sharpness goes, again I do agree that it's a little soft. I think this was in part due to the cage he was in...instead of being a glass viewing window or something like chain link or mesh, the actual "cage" is made of these very fine (and rather reflective) vertical wires. Also, this particular habitat is really pretty dark...even at ISO 800 and the lens wide open at f/5.6, I was only able to get 1/100 of a second shutter speed shooting at 300mm handheld! LOL!!! Had I of gone to a smaller aperture to get more DOF, I simply wouldn't have gotten the shot at all as I only had one tripod with me and it was holding up the flash on the other side of the cage.

As with the Mouse Deer above, I really have to blame the fishing cat's habitat here more than anything else. It would be a lot different if I could go inside the cage with these guys, but at this point at least that's just not going to happen. As such, there's only a very limited and restricted viewing area, much of it behind ornamental plants and such and again the cage is made of these thin, highly reflective vertical wires...basically there's only so many places I can stand to take the picture and only so many places where I can actually put the flash. Had I of had it lower to get some catch lights in the cat's eyes which also would have eased up the shadows a bit, I would have ended up with lots of plant shadows and such in the shot or the wires from the cage would have become quite visable. Aside from that these little guys tend to be a bit shy to begin with, so it was amazing that I really got any decent shots at all...usually they're sleeping way in the back of their habitat where you can't get any shots at all.

On the orangutan, technically speaking that was a not a finger sticking up there...it was a toe! LOL!!! I get your point though . That one was actually another really tough shot to get...poor lighting, dirty viewing window and on top of that, the only time my little friend Danial really stops moving is when he's asleep! LOL!!! In this case he was hanging from a rope swinging back and forth (and you can see his other foot has some pretty serious motion blur) so as with the fishing cat, I was just really happy I walked away with this shot.

Also for reference...the shot of the stork was a bit of a "happy accident" if you will. I hadn't planned to use the flash on that shot and I had just leaned the tripod with the flash still attached up against the fence (standard chain link in this case) and I -thought- I had the thing turned off. When I fired the shot, the flash went off and this shot was the result...not that I'm complaining mind you

One of these days hopefully I'll have something like a 5D where I can crank up the ISO a little more or I'll have a couple of fast lenses (or both) and I'll be able to get some faster shutter speeds for shots like those above. Considering these were all done with a $400 Rebel XT, a $65 Tamron lens and a $35 Metz flash (with a set of Cactus triggers) and again they were all hand held, I can't really complain too much .

Thanks for the comments!
Peace,
Jim

I cant give you a critique on the merits of them from an 'academic photoography' point of view - I simply do not have enough knowledge or experience, but for just pure pleasure to the eye I think Number 1 - the way those eyes stare at you!!, and Number 4 which is almost too cute for words take the biscuit. They are wonderful!

I liked all of your pics. I liked the cat more than the others only because I'm parcial to cats. I liked the bird the least a/c the central composition and under exposed for my personal taste.

Overall, this is nice work.....really nice work.