|
Glass walls can be a headache, too. We carry glass wipes in a resealable sandwich bag for cleaning smudges from glass and acrylic. Lip balm tones down some scratches.
To suppress reflections, we use rubber sunshades on our lenses, which we press against the glass. For lenses that don't have rubber shades, we've made a light trap from half a cardboard box, with a hole cut into its back wall and its interior painted black. We slide our lens into the hole and press the box against the glass. We also carry a large piece of black fabric like the focusing cloths large-format photographers use. We hold or gaffer-tape it to the glass, then pull it over our entire tripod-mounted rig -- good-bye reflections.
Then there are the creatures themselves. Zoo animals often telegraph clues of their captivity. If an animal seems fat or overfed, with a lack of muscle tone and a bored facial expression, move to the next enclosure. If it has claws, tusks, or fangs in the wild, try shooting at angles that don't show that these features have been removed. You can often tell a captive bird of prey, for example, by its beak -- underused in captivity, it forms an overbite.
Look for repeated behaviors. Often animals will replay the same movements, pace the same path, or interact with each other in a repetitious manner. This gives you valuable time to study the light, background, and angles and find the best vantage point, focal length, composition, and the like. Shoot portraits first, then zoom out for behavior and full-body shots.
Want to make eye contact or perk up a listless subject? Shake a big ring of noisy keys, especially around feeding time, to attract an animal's attention. (Forget dog whistles. And tempting a subject with treats will get you tossed out.)
If you enjoy your zoo experience, you'll want to go back in different light and at different times of year. And, as with most disciplines, the more you do it, the better the results will be.
Tom and Pat Leeson, a photo team for 25 years, write books and articles, and work on assignment for National Geographic, Audubon, the Sierra Club, and others.
|
