Portrait shooting at the zoo

Ever since I bought the 300mm, I have been wanting to go to the zoo to get close up portraits of the animals. This week my friend called to tell me she had a free pass and that we were off to the zoo. Awesome.

We arrived with her baby in tow, and we walked all over the zoo checking out the tigers, new butterfly area, little red pandas, and something called a Muntjac. It was a great day as each time we would arrive at a new animal, they would all pose for me without any prompting. It was like they knew I was there to make them pretty and they simply sat down, and waited for the magic to begin. This tiger paced for a bit, found some shade next to me, and sat down and stared at me. Beautiful.

One of my favorite photos was this one of an ostrich who was no more than 20ft from me when I took this shot.Totally isolated from the background, each hair can be seen, and you really get to see how ugly this bird is. Great personality in that face.

In the butterfly exhibit, I was having trouble using a large lens with a minimal focusing distance of 2.5m. I would see something, try to focus and then remember I had to back up, and by that time the butterfly had moved on. Lucky for me, there were so many photo opportunities that I felt like I was shooting fish in a barrel. The depth of field on this lens was amazing. The edge of the butterfly is out of focus, while the centre is crisp. At that distance, 2mm was the difference between in or out of focus.

Lastly, we made it out to the Canadian Aviary exhibit and saw this huge owl looking at me. It would look puzzled at me, straighten up, and then when it heard the camera click, the puzzled look came back. Such a beautiful bird and the detail in the large image is outstanding.

What a beautiful day at the zoo, and the results that I came away with made me really happy I made this lens investment.