Photography Quick Tips, Shooting through Wire Fences

Painted Hunting Dog
taken through a wire fence

Just a few tips on shooting through wire fences at Zoo's and Wildlife Parks with a DSLR.

1. I would recommend a 300mm lens and up but this all depends on how close you can get to the fence, most places have a barrier stopping you from getting too close.

2. On full zoom try and get as close to the fence as possible, try and avoid any part of the fence that has direct sunlight on it because this will increase the chance of it showing up in your shots, so pick a spot that's in shade.

3.Manual focus on static subjects if your auto focus is picking up the wire, on moving subjects I use AI servo (continuous) focusing on my Canon 7D.

 

 



On this Jaguar shot that was taken through wire fencing moving towards me i was holding my camera in the portrait position, i chose a focal point closest to the eyes and put my auto focus on AI Servo to keep the Cat in focus.
                                                                                               Hope this helps.
Thanks for looking.

 





August Photo Highlights.

Visited the Safari Night at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park

and got to see a Spoonbill at RSPB OLd Moor for the first time.

Safari Nights at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

Painted Hunting Dog

Lioness

Macaw

Amur Tiger

Zebra 

RSPB Old Moor

Spoonbill

Lapwing

Little Egret

Grey Heron

Again thanks for looking.

Cheers Al.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park 5/6/13

Shots from todays visit.

Giraffe's

Capybara

Lions

Mara

Mongoose

Painted Hunting Dog

Amur Tiger

Again thanks for looking.

Cheers Al.

End of May Blog.

I want to start first of all by giving my opinion on speedlite vs continuous 

mainly because i purchased some cheap continuous lights £50 got me two 135watt lights,light stands,shoot through umbrellas.

I got them thinking they would be better for pet portraits,i just didn't want to use flash on animals mainly.

So this as you can see is the kind i bought and my speedlite below it.

The examples below without going into too much detail on settings and such,are taken with one light in the same position,same room with the same ambient light.

First off the speedlite shot manual mode shutter speed altered to darken the backgraound,

I liked the speedlite,the photo has more depth to it.This is my first time using a speedlite so if it looks amateurish my apologies. 

The continuous light shot just seemed flat i couldn't really do anything with it,i may as well have been using window ligth.They really didn't throw that much light out,so if i were to do any pet portraits in the future i would probably take it outside or use window light.

Now a few shots i've taken in May.

First up was the Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

Amur Leopard

Painted Hunting Dog

Amur Tiger

More picture from this day out can be seen Here

Next i went to Twycross Zoo

Lopori the baby Bononbo

Red Faced Black Spider Monkey

Lowes Guenon

Ringtail Lemur

More pics from this day out here

Next up flying Black Headed Gulls at RSPB Old Moor.

The day was a grey overcast day and this is how i set my camera up to get the flying shots.

First i put the camera in Manual, ISO 400,drive mode AI Servo and Continuous Shooting,Focus Point i have selected on the Canon 7D is called AF point expansion but on a lower end camera unless your really good at tracking flying birds i would select all focus points.

Widest aperture you have,mine was f5.6 at 400mm.

Shutter speed i set at 1/800 then i take at test shot then either speed up the shutter or slow it down but i would never go below 1/640 at 400mm i'm not that good so i would move the ISO up and down on brighter and darker days but i would be looking for a shutter speed of around 1/1000.

Black Headed Gulls

More pics from this day out here

And lastly a couple of shots from the shed and the garden birdwatch list.

This Stock Dove keeps coming to the garden and now i've seen it with a mate in the garden.

It's also Ringed 12254 GB 12 R

Collared Dove.

My garden birdwatch was done on the 25/5/13 between 10.30 and 11.30 here is the list.

Blackbird.

Collared Dove.

Dunnock.

Goldfinch.

Great Tit.

House Sparrow.

Starling.

Stock Dove.

Woodpigeon.

Again Cheers and thanks for looking.