On December 2nd, 2018, Nikon School hosted a photowalk at Kuwait Zoo. Our instructor was photographer Bishara Mustafa. It was a lovely day filled with knowledge, friendship, and creativity. Ideally, wildlife photography requires traveling to the animals' natural habitat. However, zoos are an excellent alternative to shooting wildlife if traveling is an obstacle. Many wildlife photography contests consider zoo photography cheating, and they even refuse images shot in a zoo. They request that you photoshoot the animals in their natural habitat.

Zoo Types

There are multiple zoo types that you may encounter during your visit to a zoo. The zoo can be a safari Park, which means that the animals can roam around to resemble a natural wildlife environment. The zoo can be an open exhibit, where the animals are on a lower level than the viewers, and there are no bars, fences, or nets to hold the animals. The last type is the closed exhibit, where the animals are enclosed using bars, nets, or fences.

Time

Time is critical in zoo photography as it is limited by the zoo's opening and closing time hours. The earlier you go to the zoo for photography, the fewer visitors. Hence, you will have the whole zoo for yourself to photograph.

During early hours, the light is soft, which produces excellent results for your photos. Compared to the afternoon, the light is usually harsh and may not be as pleasing.

Animals are active at certain times of the day. They usually rest during the middle of the day, so make sure you go early to catch the opportunity to capture them.

Make sure you consider the weather before going to the zoo.

Camera

You can shoot zoo photography with any camera. However, it is preferred to shoot using a camera with a detachable lens system that allows mounting a telephoto lens. Not necessarily, but a camera that can shoot in continuous mode and a camera that can shoot multiple frames per second is of beneficial use.

Lens

You can shoot with any lens. However, a telephoto lens can prove helpful, especially when you have to shoot through fences and blur them out to capture your subject. Moreover, a telephoto lens allows you to get closer to the subject and get an image with an intimate feel.

Tripod

Tripod can be of great use in zoo photography. However, it is not usually allowed for safety reasons to other visitors. It was very unfortunate that I lost my Nikon Tripod during this photowalk.

Fences

Fences can be an obstacle blocking your view when shooting in a zoo. Using a long focal length and a wide aperture can solve that obstacle.

• By widening the aperture, you get two advantages. The first is to isolate the animals from its surrounding in the zoo. The second is to blur the fences, vanishing them in the image.
• The benefit of the long focal length is to lower the depth of field and narrow the field of view and compress the background to vanish the fences and isolate the animal.

As a reminder, the depth of field is affected by four things:

• Aperture
• Focal length
• Distance to subject
• Camera sensor size

Bear in mind that this trick may affect your autofocus, and you may need to focus manually.

Reflections

Some zoos have a glass display of animals. The problem with glass is reflection. These glasses are essential for the zoo; however, external reflections on the tank glass are a serious challenge for photographers. To avoid reflections, use a lens hood. Lens hoods can create a cone-shaped darkroom that can eliminate reflections. The issue with the lens hood is that it can scratch the viewing glass. These scratches can obscure the view for you, the place, and other visitors enjoying the experience in the zoo. Scalloped lens hoods will let light in, so they won't help.

The best choice, in my opinion, is a rubber lens hood, which can create a reflection-free cone of darkness. Its main advantage is moving freely and composing your image before taking the shot. Rubber lens hoods are inexpensive and will not harm the viewing glass. They may cause rounded black corners when using wide lenses, which can easily be solved by cropping the image. A lens hood made by Josh Smith, founder of the Ultimate Lens Hood, is of particular interest.

One of the other solutions that I read about was the polarizing filter, which may help reduce unwanted reflections.

Shooting angles

It's rare to have a 360 viewing area in a zoo. However, you can achieve great results by changing your shooting angles. Try shooting from the right side of the cage, then moving to the left side of the cage, and then shooting in the middle.

Focus

Moving animals can be a challenge. You can solve this issue via shutter priority mode, continuous shooting mode, and autofocus.

White Balance

Auto White Balance can do the trick. However, make sure to shoot in RAW to change the white balance in Lightroom later, just in case.

Exposure

The challenges you will face in zoos are animal movement and fences. To capture animal movement, you need a high shutter speed, and to vanish fences, you need a wide aperture.

During that day, I used aperture priority mode, and I increased my ISO to 400 to compensate for the low shutter speed that may occur, blurring the image. That worked perfectly for me, and I also used exposure compensation mode to better control my exposure.

You can also use manual mode and adjust the settings for your taste. Shutter priority mode with an Auto ISO or low ISO can do the trick. Still, there is a risk of the aperture being narrow and showing the fences.

Flash

Use manual mode because "auto" mode will trigger your flash, and animals are usually far away for the flash to impact your image. However, what recently caught my eye was a product by MagMod that you can attach a piece that can let your flash travel a long way. It is usually used for wildlife photography.

Plus, shooting with your flash on the glass will cause external reflection, plus it isn't pleasant for other visitors.

Post-Production

The main sliders in Lightroom I use in aquarium images are White Balance, Exposure, Contrast, and Clarity. I also use the Saturation slider if needed. Sometimes, I will color grade my pictures if the colours are dull. I usually warm up my zoo photography image via the white balance slider to create a wild feeling.

Opportunities

Zoos are great places for photography, not just for animals. You can shoot other people, landscapes, and still images of different subjects, just like I did in this photowalk.

Be patient

Being patient is the most important advice I can give you in zoo photography. To capture that decisive moment, you need to be patient.

The Gear I Used

I hope you learned a lot from this blog. If you are interested in a one-on-one training session, drop me a direct message on my Instagram account.