Day at the Zoo

mellowhead

New member
My 30th bday was Sat and, with my recent purchase of a Nikon D5000 this past black Friday, my wife and I felt a trip to the Jacksonville Zoo was in order. Some friends went with us so I didn't take as much time setting up shots as I would have liked, but we had a ton of fun and I got to attempt to learn my new camera. A few things I noticed right away that make shooting at the zoo a little tricky at times. The obvious is you're shooting a live animal that doesn't understand sit still and smile for the camera. The next, and probably the hardest, issue I had was the fencing. I'm new to DSLR's and kept AF on almost always and making sure the animal was in focus and not the fence was tricky at times. I would also LOVE to figure out if I can photoshop some of the fence marks from the pictures I posted below. Sometimes I almost got the fence to disappear, although admittedly I have no idea how I did, but other shots it is terribly obvious. Any pointers? The next issue was shutter speed. It was already a very cloudy day and getting fast shutter speeds wasn't always an option it seemed. I had the ISO bumped up a tad, 640 I think, to help but at the end of the day I was shooting at slower speeds, ie > 1/200. This led to some blurring at times even with a monopod. Thanks for looking.

1. We were thinking this one was pregnant or VERY well fed.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5. This was the other Leopard in the pen.
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6. This was awesome to watch. The female kept getting rowdy with the male.
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7. So close you can almost touch them. =)
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8.
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9. Just hanging out.
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10.
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Thanks for looking,
MH
 
Don't use flash when shooting through the fence, frame the important part in the open space of the fence so it's sharpest. Make sure the fence your shooting through is in shadow and the subject is in the light. Does that make sense?
 
hummermaniac88 - I was using the 55-200mm VR Nikkor (kit lens) with a monopod. no filters.

brent ward - Thank you so much for the tips, it does make sense. Can't wait to go back when it's just me or just me and the wife, as I will be able to spend a lot more time. PS - Love your work.

Kind Regards,
 
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