I would like to share some thoughts on common mistakes made by photographers when they head to the zoo. By no means am I at the pinnacle of zoo photography, but I’ve made these mistakes and maybe others will benefit from avoiding them. There are many more possible mistakes than just five such as technique issues like using too slow of a shutter speed to freeze action. But I want to focus on other issues that may pop up to ruin an otherwise great photo after you’ve mastered the technical stuff. Below are 5 of the biggest problems I’ve seen or experienced when it comes to zoo photography.
(1) Shooting in Harsh Light
Photographing at the zoo in the middle of a sunny afternoon is probably the worst time for any of the outdoor exhibits. Light will be very harsh, and you run the risk of either blowing out your highlights or having unrecoverable shadows. Bright, harsh light will wash out otherwise vibrantly colored fur or feathers of animals. Photographing an animal in mixed light where, for example, you have a brightly lit body and face in deep shadow is also not a great look. Another reason not to shoot in the late morning or early to mid-afternoon is that, if it’s hot, animals will probably not be super active. Odds are they will be tucked under a tree or in their cave catching zzz’s.
Lion relaxing in warm morning sunshine. Click image for larger version.
There are a few solutions. The easiest one is to just visit the zoo first thing in the morning, 1-2 hours before closing or wait til the light is better. In the early morning or late afternoon, the light will be less harsh and have warmer tones. Even better, buy a zoo membership and look out for special membership hours. At my local zoo, members can enter at 7:30am or as late as 7pm on certain days. I put these on my calendar and buy tickets in advance, since the light is great and many animals tend to be more active early in the morning or in the evening.
Second, you can go to the zoo when the sky is overcast. When the sky is overcast, the sky is basically a big softbox resulting in diffused, even lighting of outdoor animals. Colors are more saturated compared to bright sunlight, and blown out highlights are no longer a big problem. However, be aware that your images may look flat. If your style involves dramatic lighting or you want shadows to bring out texture or features, you may not be happy with an overcast sky.
Next, head indoors. Bring your fastest, mid-range zoom lens and give some love to the lizards, snakes, small mammals and other animals typically found in indoor exhibits. I suggest buying a rubber lens hood (click here for examples; no affiliation). A rubber lens hood will help avoid scratching or damaging glass enclosures of, for instance, the reptile habitats when you place your lens hood right up against the glass to minimize reflections.
Finally, if you have to shoot outdoors in harsh light, look for details and interesting textures instead of shooting the entire animal. Light raking along the shell of a radiated tortoise may bring out interesting textures or you could zoom in tight on his deeply wrinkled skin as the harsh light brings out the skin’s texture.
(2) Shooting Far-Away Animals Using a Woefully Inadequate Lens
You need the right lens for the job, and the right lens is the one that gets you close to the subject and cuts out extraneous junk in your photo. I touched on this in a previous blog post on camera settings (click here), but you want to draw the viewer’s eye to the animal. If you’re shooting with too wide of an image at too far of a distance, even an elephant will look small in your photo as you include acres of her surrounding habitat with trees, weeds, fences, zookeepers, tourists or anything else that was in the camera’s field of view. Worse, most or all of that will be in focus same as the elephant if you’re using a wide-angle lens.
If an element doesn’t add something important to saying something about the animal, that element is hurting your photo. If you don’t have a telephoto, plan on cropping the photo afterward to make the animal the star of the image. That being said, you may want a wide-angle or mid-range lens to show the animal interacting with her habitat. However, the same principle applies in terms of photographing the elements that contribute toward that story.
Grizzly bear enjoying a bath. Click image for full-size.
(3) Not Focusing on the Eyes
There’s nothing worse than spending all day at the zoo, finally capturing an image of an animal’s fleeting but interesting gesture, and then realizing when you get home that the eyes are out of focus. Now, if you capture a great, unique or interesting gesture, this may not matter as much. For example, getting the hand of an orangutan in focus as he gives you an OK sign might be ok. But even then, it might make a stronger photo if you also had his eyes in focus. If you’re shooting backlit silhouettes of animals, this tip also obviously does not apply. In the image below, the focus of the image is the orangutans’ hands and their placement. However, when you’re otherwise photographing an animal, especially a portrait, strive to get the eyes in focus.
Why is this important? Viewers zero in on eyes whether they’re from other humans or animals. Eyes along with facial expressions help create an emotional connection between viewer and subject. Because viewers generally look at the eyes first, having out-of-focus eyes is a major bummer to an image. You have to be especially careful with long telephoto lens at wide apertures while photographing long-snouted animals like giraffes, zebras, elephants, rhinos, etc. Unless you have something fancy like the latest mirrorless cameras with Animal Eye Detection, your autofocus system may focus on the tip of the animal’s nose, and using too narrow of a depth of field will leave the eyes completely out of focus. (Check out my previous blog (link here) for what I do to increase the odds of sharp eyes using a DSLR.)
Hand Over Hand. Orangutans at Hogle Zoo. Click image for larger view.
Portrait of an Elderly Silverback Gorilla. Click image for full-size.
(4) Always Shooting Down on the Animal
For a different perspective than that of nearly every other zoo visitor taking a photo, photograph an animal at their level, eye-to-eye. For example, most snapshots of an alligator or tortoise are taken from standing height at a downward angle. The average zoo visitor will rarely do a full squat, kneel or lay down on the ground to get a different perspective for their photo.
As photographers, we strive to differentiate our work from others, and part of this is to use an unusual but interesting or dynamic perspective. For large animals or certain habitats, you may not have a choice in terms of perspective, but when you can, try getting low and see how you like the images.
Rules can be broken, but they should be deliberate for artistic effect. In Portrait of an Elderly Silverback, shooting from a higher viewpoint was ideal to create his portrait, same as this might be for a human portrait.
(5) Being in a Rush
This may be the most important tip since it prevents you from taking an interesting photo at all. Don’t be in a rush to get to the next exhibit. The large majority of people stop at, for example, the bear habitat, take a couple shots, and then move on to the next animal. This is fine if the bears are slumbering, but if they’re active, it pays to spend at least several minutes admiring the bears, studying their behavior, and hopefully getting a great shot that shows off their personality. I got the above shot of the grizzly while milling around the bear habitat and seeing him saunter into a pool to splash around and cool off.
It’s usually easier to do this if you’re visiting the zoo by yourself or with an understanding spouse than if you’re with kids or a group of people. But if you take your time, you’ll gain more insights into species behavior and an animal’s habits, and will walk away with more interesting, unique shots. In the image of rhinos below, I had to wait for quite a while until the bird hitchhiker was in the right position and pose, looking down at the two rhinos.
Rhinos with a bird hitchhiker. Click image for full-size.
Final Thoughts
Hope you found these tips useful. The most important tip is to just go to your local zoo as often as possible. Beautiful images of critters don’t make themselves; you need to be there to capture the peak moment. If you don’t have a zoo close-by, keep the above points in mind when photographing your pets or the birds, squirrels or other wildlife that may be close by. If you have any more tips or suggestions, please leave a comment.