Now we’re getting somewhere. That place is downtown Atlanta to the zoo, and of course. I brought my camera. This was an amazing and bittersweet experience. Getting this close to animals is highly unlikely for me in the nearby future. Especially while I maintain a 40 hour a week job. Can’t just drop everything to go on an African safari for a week to see lions, tigers and bears. (oh my)
But as I said, bittersweet. Firstly I don’t count these as wildlife per say. Animals forced to live in cages shouldn’t count towards my photography in my mind. I have mixed feelings about keeping them trapped there as a source of revenue for the zoo. Maybe and only if the animal was unable to fend for themselves for some reason, that’s not about capturing a wild animal to use it for profit. That’s more to rehabilitate and protect. I think we as humans absolutely have an obligation to protect wildlife in their natural habitat as much as possible. Not encroaching on their land should be mandatory across the globe. Certainly not penning them up for our amusement. We are the biggest problem with the planet, we will bring about destruction and extinction even more than we already have. Currently going on while writing this is the horrible fires destroying much of Australia, and the estimated numbers about wildlife death is appalling. We did this, and we have a responsibility to fix it before it gets worse. Sometimes when I’m out alone in nature looking for wildlife I think about if I’m taking pictures of basic common animals that will be nonexistent within my own lifetime. Absolutely terrifying that it’s very possible.
But back in 2018, we’re heading to the zoo. To take pictures of caged animals.
Canon T3i w/ 18-55mm - 1/60 Sec - F5.6 - 55mm - ISO 100
I don’t go downtown a lot, or ever if I can manage it. Certainly not if I have to drive, and since I was taking pictures of the buildings from the car on this morning. You can guess I wasn’t driving.
We arrived at the zoo, early of course. As going anywhere with my girlfriend we need to arrive earlier than early. Can’t blame her too much, better to be early than late I do agree with that. I remember us playing Pokemon go while we waited for the others to arrive. Others being family members and their various children. Which I was apprehensive about for this trip, as I do my best to avoid children. The screaming, the crying, the crying screams. Not my cup of tea and why I won’t be having any. Plus the world is populated enough. But again, the animals.
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/100 Sec - F5.6 - 80mm - ISO 160
Jumping straight in with the Elephant. There was a pair of them, but the other was very much out in the harsh sunlight. By the time we got into the zoo it was pushing noon.
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/250 Sec - F11 - 160mm - ISO 1600
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/250 Sec - F11 - 170mm - ISO 1600
The lions were very cool to see, just chilling on some rocks. Acting like big cats. I did try for some closer shots, as these were about mid range of the telephoto capability. But they came out pretty blurry, knowing what I know now I should have raised the shutter speed by a lot. It was still around 100 when I was at 300mm. But oh well, gotta learn somehow. And these shots are still pretty cool, not everyday you see lions.
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/500 Sec - F5.6 - 160mm - ISO 3200
The bird area was really cool, very difficult to get a good shot in there. But basically you’re in a giant bird cage, with an upper and lower floor and plenty of trees.
Now I don’t know what kind of bird this is, but I do have a good comparison for the technical side. Take for example this raw image that I originally ignored when it came to editing.
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/500 Sec - F5.6 - 140mm - ISO 4000
Looking at it now, I can see why I didn’t jump on it to get this one edited. Pretty blown out with the sunlight, and really grainy from that high ISO. Which is a shame because the profile of a bird is a really cool shot, that little splash of a dark blue feather seems really cool. So just to see what I could do with it now, years later, I threw it into lightroom for a quick and dirty editing.
Same image
I like this one so much now, you do lose a bit of detail trying to smooth out that awful grain but for some reason I decided 500/sec was a good idea for an inside darker area. No idea why I did that, maybe I wanted to catch one of them in flight. But shooting in raw I was able to vastly improve this image to something I like, you still get that blue color coming through strong. Because this is an exotic bird I’m not sure exactly what kind it is. But the tail is magnificent.
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/200 Sec - F5 - 190mm - ISO 1000
Missed the focus on this one, but you do get to see the tail.
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/125 Sec - F5.6 - 300mm - ISO 6400
My googling leads me to believe this is a Flame Colored Tanager, my eyes tell me this is a fiery little bird that I had to get a shot of through a fence. At a much lower shutter speed than I should have been using.
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/100 Sec - F29 - 190mm - ISO 6400
Think I was trying to get a shot of both gorillas in focus at once, hence the fully open F stop. Didn’t quite get the image I was picturing because of the leaves covering one’s face.
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/100 Sec - F10 - 300mm - ISO 2500 - Silverback Gorilla
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/100 Sec - F5.6 - 300mm - ISO 800 - Wolf Monkey
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/25 Sec - F4.5 - 80mm - ISO 100 - Wreathed Hornbill
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/50 Sec - F8 - 80mm - ISO 400 - Wreathed Hornbill
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/160 Sec - F7.1 - 210mm - ISO 4000 - King Vulture
Canon T3i W/75-300mm - 1/100 Sec - F5 - 140mm - ISO 200 - Panda
I took pictures of almost every animal in the zoo that day, not all of them turned out very well. I definitely have picked out some of my favorites that I showed above. Dipping my toes into exploring more than just a snapshot of a particular animal, but getting an image that tells a bit of a story.