colchester zoo (:

tankingfisher

tankingfisher

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Name
joe
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hey everyone, this is my first set of pictures, ever... so please go easy on me ;) its from a little trip to colchester zoo using a nikon D3000 70-300mm, let me know what you think, cheers, Joe

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Some nice images (y) but in a lot of them have little parts missing :shrug: and that's best to be avoided, also watch out for your focus, it's best with living subjects if the focus is on the face/eye (y)

Welcome to the forum :wave:

Matt
MWHCVT
 
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Hello and welcome to TP :wave:

Good first crack, but you have tried to get some reasonably difficult shots. The glass hasn't helped with the reflections and some like the black headed weavers in the giraffe house due to the light (or lack of) meant using a high iso and lowish speed giving a soft, noisy image. With the condor it looks like the focus point is the back, whereas on the eyes would have given a more interesting image - that said the pose isn't that photogenic and its hard to get around that enclosure with the vinyl on the glass. First wolf shot is nice but a bit soft, and again the focus point on the eyes would have made a lovely image. Second wolf shot has a lot going for it (like the slobber!) but the reflections and softness distract a bit.

The 300 gives you a nice reach at Colchester zoo and if you ever go again you can get some great photos of the cheetahs and the tigers. The latter will be through glass but if you plan the shot right from the tunnel you can get a really nice shot with no reflection. Keep going though - some great potential!


The first shot is very nice though.
 
Shooting through glass can always be difficult, especially on a bright day due to reflections. I'm not sure if your 70-300 has a lens hood or not. If you do have one try and marry up the hood to the glass cutting out light that causes reflections. This will also assist your auto focus.

Obviously you should be trying to find a section of glass that is as clean as possible. This may mean getting up a little higher than the average eye line or down low, dodging the sticky childrens finger prints!

Another thing to think about with captive animals is the background. Before taking any pictures have a look over the enclosure and the possible photo angles that will not include anything that shouts 'zoo'. It is worth sitting down at that perfect angle and waiting for the animal to get in to your shot. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't.

The most important thing though is that you are out taking pictures, appreciating the animals and having a good day out.


Caleb, your are very lucky living in Colchester. I rate it as one of the best zoo's in the south and try and get there at least once a year. Luckily my Marwell annual pass also gets me in Colchester free so i only have the petrol cost of a 250 miles round trip!
 
Thanks alot Martyn and Caleb, I am definately going to try to use those tips, how do I increase the shutter speed without going on the S setting? And I didn't even think about the hood thing, what exactly is ISO, as I said I'm a bit of a novice lol :D cheers guys
 
Joe,

I use Canon so i'm not sure what S setting is. Maybe a Nikon user can answer that question.

However i always provide the following 3 subjects to newbies. Research these subjects and you will have the technical fundamentals of photography.

- Shutter speed, what happens to a picture with fast and slow shutter speeds. When would you use a fast or slow shutter speeds.
- Aperture , this affects the Depth of Field (DOF). Don't be worried by 'f' numbers. A great way to research DOF is to lay a ruler down and take pictures along it's length changing the aperture settings.
- ISO, ISO started out as a standard of measuring film sensitivity. So research film ISO as digital ISO replicates the same thing in digital form. If you plan to take pictures outside on cloudy days ISO is important to know.

I'm no professional, far from it, but over the 5 years i have been in to photography have learnt a great deal from trial and error. So the best advice is to get out there and try things out. The beauty of digital is that you can see your results straight away and act to amend your faults. The learning curve is alot steeper.
 
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Love the first and last :)

The 2nd is very cute but not sharp (is that the word??) can you tell I'm new to this too ;)

The 3rd, the bottom where his wings are is very focussed but his eye and face aren't - aim for that area next time :)

The next two both don't do it for me at all, looks as if the (wolf?) has been caught walking and has a bit of a drunk look to it, bless it :p

Very well done though - better pics than I can do that's for sure :) xx
 
S is Nikon for shutter priority, think its tv in canon talk, some nice shots there so would be a way to alter your shutter speed, going full manual is the other. I know the zoo well and the glass is a bit of a nightmare, another tip is to wear dark clothing to cut down the reflections you are casting, the chimps and orangutans are the hardest, you'll have to really ram up the ISO to get any kind of good exposure, especially at this time of year. Keep it up, it's a great start and you will be amazed at how much your shots improve over time, baby cheetahs are very cute, got some of them last week when I was there. Maybe a zoo meet up is in order sometime soon!
 
Think of it as a triangle, between ISO, Aperture and shutter speed. Moving to a faster shutter speed will require an increase in iso and/or a wider aperture, and a reduction in shutter speed will give a smaller aperture and lower iso. Ultimately a low iso value is best to reduce the amount of noise in the image. Generally a wider aperture will also blur the background (bokeh is the posh term) but using a suitably long lens will also detach the subject. I started out by setting the shutter speed and letting the camera do the rest, then gradually moved to manual when I had a better handle on it all. Generally the rule of thumb is minimum speed is equivalent to the focal length in use, but practically in my experience you don't want to go much under 1/200ish with anything moving slightly.

MG TF 135 said:
Luckily my Marwell annual pass also gets me in Colchester free so i only have the petrol cost of a 250 miles round trip!
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Great isn't it! Last year we also visited Chester and Paignton and got in gratas with our Colchester Zoo cards, will have to pay a trip to Marwell one day.
 
Thanks a lot everyone, really helpful advice, and yeahh I think a meet up in Colchester zoo would be excellent, if you have a specific day of the week your free let me know mate and I'll definately be up for that... Once again thanks everyone for your help, pm me about what day your free for the zoo, would be good to pick your brains in person d: x
 
I agree with the previous comments about watching out for missing parts etc. and for where the focus point is, but I feel that more than a few of these pictures are missing some sharpening after downsizing. A little bit of that would spiff these up enormously.

BTW love Colchester Zoo, perhaps I'll head there tomorrow to renew my season ticket.
 
Can only do weekends at the moment, I'm a canon user with a 100-400 and 15-85 if others would like to swap etc, 11am sounds spot on, hopefully get a sunny day as a zoom is really needed
 
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Ok mate, well I think I'm working next weekend, but I shall find out soon what weekend I'm free, and yeahh sunny day would be handy :D x
 
No4 with the glare from the wolf, engaged the subject, simple background and quite menacing:eek:.
 
cw318is said:
....With the condor it looks like the focus point is the back,...
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That would be a King Vulture, a bird with a fantastic head. Worth spending a bit of time trying to get some sharp shots of it, so focus on the eyes.
 
Jackwow said:
That would be a King Vulture, a bird with a fantastic head. Worth spending a bit of time trying to get some sharp shots of it, so focus on the eyes.
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Will do mate, kind of went a bit trigger happy on my first trip with this camera (and first trip ever) I will definately put more thought into the snaps next time haha, cheers :)
 
Out of interest, how much is the entry to Colchester Zoo, and also the season ticket price? Must be 18 years or so since I last went.
 
Ploddles said:
Out of interest, how much is the entry to Colchester Zoo, and also the season ticket price? Must be 18 years or so since I last went.
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At the moment ticket for an adult is only £9.99 for winter, £15.99 summer, gold season ticket is 40 odd I believe
 
I think my zoo pics are in my photobucket link below if you want to see what I achieved when I last went
 
Another tip i find helps with the focus on animals is to use the selective focus points on your camera. My Canon has 9 focus points and i regularly change which one i use depending on the composition that i want. I hardly ever use the central focus point anymore.

A few from Colchester Zoo by myself too.
 
had a peek mate, love the king vulture, and the snow leopards, where were they i didnt see them at colchester?
 
really cool pics mate, im envious lol, love the meerkat lying on his back haha :) still cant see your sig though :confused:
 
lol, i have just moved them all to one album acctually, spent too much time this year getting them, there certainly a challenge, but luckily they where all in my garden, so just had to hide for a while and bide my time.
 
i put a peanut feeder directly outside my window on a tree, put niger seed feeders there too, got some lovely greater spotted, and some goldfinch too, cant wait for some nice weather to capture them :)
 
good work, there tricky fellas, they spent about a month stripping bark off one tree as there where insects behind, thats where i got alot of my shots, now there pecking away at the garden ignoring the bird feeder lol
 
haha, little buggers lol. loving the avatar btw, links in very nicely with your name :L
 
just found that lol, the bird im determinrd to get this year is a kingfisher, just got to find where they are round here, roll on the summer fo some better light for the tele
 
lackford lakes, i got some pictures of them with my little lumix camera this year, just wish i had my dslr, if you come with me one summers day ill show you their nests :)
 
sounds great as long as there not disturbed, hopefully we can get a few to visit the zoo, theres no better advice than free advice lol, and theres some great photographers on here, ive still a long way to go yet though.
 
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