Back to Belfast Zoo

[Sonsey]

Since reading Stewart's thread about visiting Belfast Zoo http://www.thephotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3615 I had caught the bug to go back there as it had been quite a while since my last visit, so over the weekend my g/f and I took a trip over... twice!. :eyesup: The first day it absolutely chucked it down 10 minutes after we arrived, so we cut our losses and went up the next day aswell, at only £6 in I wasn't too annoyed.

Anyway, here's 3 shots from the day, number's 2 and 3 are slightly soft around the face ( they're deceptively quick ) but I still like them all the same. All taken with the Canon and Sigma (see sig.) Comments are allways welcome, hope you enjoy!.


Meerkat

Red Panda

Californian Sea Lion

 

[GfK]

Loving the third one. Can't help thinking 'Frank Sinatra'

 

[Steve]

Good shots mate, glad you got some photos that you are happy with, especially since you went twice.

I was there with Stewart earlier in the year and I swear that the Merrkat doesn’t move!! I believe it is stuffed That reminds me I must really get around to processing the rest of those pictures :shock:

You had more luck than me with the Red Panda though, it was just curled up in a little ball at the top of a tree, it didn't even peep at us as we shouted and hurled abuse at the thing.

The sea lions put on a great show for us while we were there; we caught them at feeding time so they were all very lively.

How did you get on with the Gorillas, they were inside when we visited and there was a massive Silverback that would have made a superb picture but due to the glass and poor lighting, getting the shot was almost impossible.

 

[Sonsey]

Loving the third one. Can't help thinking 'Frank Sinatra'

It sure was "crooning" rather loudly at the time, I love the shot but it's a shame it's a bit blurred. It was either try and cope with a slower shutter speed, or put up with more noise due to a higher ISO... and I hate noise oh well, glad you enjoyed the pose anyway.

I was there with Stewart earlier in the year and I swear that the Merrkat doesn’t move!! I believe it is stuffed That reminds me I must really get around to processing the rest of those pictures

You had more luck than me with the Red Panda though, it was just curled up in a little ball at the top of a tree, it didn't even peep at us as we shouted and hurled abuse at the thing.

How did you get on with the Gorillas, they were inside when we visited and there was a massive Silverback that would have made a superb picture but due to the glass and poor lighting, getting the shot was almost impossible.

Get those shots processed!! :shock: I'd love to see them mate, even if you added a few on to the end of this (or Stewart's) thread.

The Red Panda was a complete pain in the :censored: It was lively enough but it was allways moving away from me to other trees, and as soon as I moved to get a better shot, he started moving too... I was there 15 minutes before I got this pic, and it's blurred :eyesup:

The big Silverback is still there but was inside again as it was pretty chilly on the day. I did switch to the Tamron to try and get an indoor shot of him but it just wasn't happening, as you mention, the glass and the bad lighting ruled it out, shame.

They also had some Barbary Lions there which were wandering about looking mean and I must've taken at least a dozen shots of them. When I got in and load up the pics, every single one was out of focus, don't know what happened... needless to say, I wasn't happy!! :annoyed:

Thanks for the comments guys :thumb:

 

[Steve]

Get those shots processed!! :shock: I'd love to see them mate, even if you added a few on to the end of this (or Stewart's) thread.

I posted three in a thread about noise in pictures here.
I have not processed the others yet although I may batch them off today and start a thread.

 

[Madpup]

Great shots sonsey, is picture two's background photo shopped? it looks kool

 

[Sonsey]

I posted three in a thread about noise in pictures here.
I have not processed the others yet although I may batch them off today and start a thread.

Those are VERY nice Steve, interesting shooting with the over exposure then pulling it back in post-processing, it really gives some great results. Looking forward to seeing the rest of them if you get round to it :thumb:

Great shots sonsey, is picture two's background photo shopped? it looks kool

Thanks mate, that's actually the way it came out, a couple of sharpening passes and a BIG crop then a simple frame put round it... that was it, done.

 

[Matt]

Good shots, them Red Pandas have camera recognition disorder, everytime someone gets a camera out near them they turn round....

 

[Arkady]

No 2 is back-focussed (only by half a foot or so, but look at the back-side of the branch compared to the animal's face).
No3 is soft - too slow a shutter speed - the head has blurred slightly.

No1 is good, but looks a little flat on my laptop screen - try beefing up the saturation a tad and fiddling with the levels to give it a little more 'oomph!'.

 

[Sonsey]

No 2 is back-focussed (only by half a foot or so, but look at the back-side of the branch compared to the animal's face).
No3 is soft - too slow a shutter speed - the head has blurred slightly.

Fully agree mate,
no.2) I must've just missed him with that shot, he was actually quite quick and I was at full zoom, definately user error on that one.

no.3) I was strugling with slow shutter speeds all day, it really was quite overcast and I was allready a ISO 400-800 here. Since I really don't like noise on pics of this subject matter I just decided to hope for the best, it being my first proper outing with the Sigma didn't help matters much either

no.1) I'm really pleased with this one actually, I punched above my weight getting this one so to speak Maybe not as vivid as I've seen others produce but good enough for me at the moment, I'll gladly take your advice and boost it up a bit to see if it makes things better though

Cheers mate, thanks for commenting.