The L.A. Zoo 12-18-05

There’s some wildlife photographers out there who raise their nose higher than the noblest blue bloods at photographers who shoot at zoos. It’s just a bunch of egotistical insecurity on their part. As long as the images are disclosed as captive then who cares if they were shot at a zoo or not. If they’d spend less energy on their ego and more on their craft perhaps they’d realize they could fine-tune their technique at a zoo before spending thousands of dollars on some exotic safari or wasting National Geographic’s money fumbling with their new equipment in the field. Of course there’s nothing like the experience and raw energy of shooting in the field, that’s what all nature photographers live for but it doesn’t mean there’s nothing redeeming about the zoo. Zoo’s such as the L.A. Zoo have done a lot for conservation of endangered animals none more famous than the California Condor. In 2003, I saw two condors on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and nearly walked past them before noticing them. No one else seemed to notice either so I assumed they were fake at first. I have the L.A. Zoo to thank for that encounter.





I picked up a cheap 70-300 zoom lens for my 20D so I wanted to figure it out in a local place I knew I could photograph easily before making a 175 mile trip to the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR for example. My uncle Peter, who’s a professional photographer coincidentally called me as I was driving to the zoo to say that he just received his Nikon D200 the day before and wanted to try it out somewhere. He met me at the zoo and we had a rather productive day in great light. The light was overcast in the morning then gave way to warm afternoon light which provided the Grey Wolves dramatic backlighting during 2 p.m. feeding time. We used the morning to shoot flamingos and various other animals.





It’s all about capturing the moment and to me the moment is about energy. Generally I hate static wildlife portraits aka. most big game and bird photography. The keyword is MOST. Something needs to be happening otherwise I find the photos to be boring be it dramatic lighting, action or whatever. Frans Lanting is a wildlife photographer I’m a big fan of because his photos say something. You can tell the artistry and thoughtfulness right away from seeing his work.





I happen to like vicious and ferocity so that’s what I’d like to capture in wildlife. It’s very difficult to capture those moments properly but I’ll keep trying. I’m a very low budget photographer but the one piece of equipment I’ve been drooling over in the catalogs is the Sigma 80-400mm f4-5.6 OS lens. The faster lenses are too bulky and immobile for me to ever consider. My entire shooting method revolves around mobility so for now the 70-300 will suffice. The image stabilization on the Sigma would have made a big difference though as I didn’t bring a tripod so a number of my shots weren’t sharp. I was panning and shooting wild machine gun bursts handheld at the moving animals so it’s no surprise my technique didn’t lend itself to tack sharp photos. Entirely sharp photos would have been nice but not my top priority. It’s all about the moment. My uncle had a monopod however and he was probably able to get a higher percentage of sharp shots. However for landscapes, almost all my shots are on a tripod. Landscape photography is a whole different ballgame and one I’m more comfortable with. That’s why I’m trying to break out of my own box by trying learn wildlife. Wildlife photography may even help improve my landscape work; you never know. Lanting, Chris Johns, Nick Nichols, Daniel Cox, and Jim Brandenburg are all wildlife photographers I’d like to take a workshop with eventually to improve my technique and hone my vision.





Wildlife hot spots I’d like to visit: Bosque del Apache NWR, South Georgia Falkland Islands, Antarctica, Arctic NWR, Platte River, Tule Lake NWR, Sacramento NWR.

Places I’ve visited: Sacramento NWR.

Go figure.

Things to consider

1. Image stabilization lens or camera: Helps get sharper photos in deep shade and makes panning look smoother.
2. A tripod or monopod: I didn’t bring mine so I improvised whenever I could using guard rails and sign posts. For the same reason listed above.
3. A telephoto zoom lens and wide angle lens. I didn’t bring my wide angle so I missed out on tourists observing the action type shots.
4. Set your ISO on at least 400 if the image quality allows for it. For the same reason as 1 & 2.