On Fri, 18 May 2001 21:33:12 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:
>I have a lot of photos of Melbourne Zoo in this lot as
>well. I tried to get the lions without their cage, so
>it looked like I was standing right next to them in
>the wild, but I couldn't get rid of the cage. My lens
>will only give f5.6 when zoomed to 80mm, and I don't
>think this was enough. Any suggestions for getting rid
>of cages?
Hopefully, the "bars" problem will go away in your area soon. Zoos are
changing - most are eliminating bars entirely as they modernize. The
modernized zoos I've encountered lately need only 200mm or 300mm
maximum focal length, and carrying a 100mm or 50mm Macro is almost a
must. But for those who still encounter cages and bars, these tricks
work very well:
1. As already suggested, shoot between the bars. A P&S is good for
this. However, most zoos are onto this trick, and place the visitor
railing too far away to get the P&S (and fingers) into the cage. The
"through the bars" trick is too intrusive of the animal's limited and
fixed space for me. Getting the lens right up to the bars is as far as
I'm willing to go, and then only if the visitor railing permits that
without leaning far over or extending the camera on a monopod.
2. Use a lens such as 200/2.5, 200/2.8. 300/2.8, 400/2.8, or 600/4
wide open.
The trick is to put the front of the lens as close as possible to the
bars/wires, then choose a subject which is as far away from the bars
as possible, yet not so far that the bars/wires at the other side of
the cage come into focus. Try to avoid crossed and doubled bars and
wires directly in the center of the lens. Try to shoot directly at the
subject, not left or right or up or down. Keep the lens at right
angles to the bars, so as to reduce the chance of getting more bars
than necessary in front of the lens.
Look for dull, non-reflective areas of the bars. If the sun is shining
directly on the bars, forget it. Look for the reflections and bright
spots on the bars and compare that to non-reflective, shaded bars, and
you'll see what I mean. Find a spot where the bars are shaded, or have
a friend shade them for you.
The very best lens I have for shooting through bars is the 600/4. It
will shoot right through one inch think vertical bars spaced four
inches apart. I can spread my entire hand in front of the front
element and still get the shot.
The SMC 200/2.5 does a really good job of zoo shots also. It is much
better at shooting though bars than the A* 200/4 Macro. I find the
200/2.5 DOF falls off quickly behind the focused point, unlike most
other of my lenses which the DOF falls off quickly in front of the
focused point.
In some cases, I got good photos with the 100/2.8 Macro shooting
through thin wires and screens.
Many zoos now have thick glass, which presents other challenges such
as finding a clean, unscratched, undistorted spot at which the glass
is at a right angle to the subject. Setting the front of the lens
directly against the glass helps a lot, but exercise care to avoid
adding any more scratches to the glass..
--
Happy Trails,
Texdance
http://members.fortunecity.com/texdance
http://members1.clubphoto.com/john8202
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