# A Few More Zoo Portraits



## SCraig (Mar 3, 2012)

Just sharing a few more portraits from the Nashville Zoo.  I've got some back problems and my doctor told me to try and walk it out.  Walking around the zoo is as good a place as any :thumbup:

This young female Masai Giraffe was born in the zoo.  If I remember right she is about 1-1/2 years old now.  I don't know what the zoo staff puts on the trees for them to lick, but whatever it is they love it!






One of many Meerkats.  I have no clue how many there are there, and I'm not convinced that the zoo staff does either.  They have tunnels all over their paddock and a lot of them are down in the tunnels.  The young are born in them and only come out until they are a few weeks old.

I was at the zoo last spring and saw several of the zoo staff running toward the Meerkat pen. There were about a dozen staff members there and I found out that three Meerkat pups had made their first appearance outside their den.  There were 5 total, and I saw one of them come out for the first time in his life and take a look at the big, wide world outside his den.





Red Panda.  I've never gotten a really satisfactory shot of this animal because he's either way up in a tree among the branches or leaves or pacing his pen.  It's pretty shady there, I'm always shooting at a slow shutter speed, and his pacing does not help at all.  This is about as good as I've gotten so far.





American Cougar.  This is another I seldom get a decent shot of.  As can be seen in the shot below the sun is behind his head.  He sleeps on the same rock all day long and I swear it revolves because somehow the sun is ALWAYS behind his head.  It's also far enough away that a flash doesn't help much.






This is a lousy shot but I thought it was cute.  These two Cougar cubs are about a month old, or so I was told.  They haven't been turned loose in the paddock yet but it can be seen in their looks that they would really, really like to get in there and play.


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## Majeed Badizadegan (Mar 3, 2012)

Nice shots


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## cgipson1 (Mar 3, 2012)

Beautiful shots, Scott! Have you ever tried a Better Beamer on your flash for some of the "farther away" critters? Extends flash range quite a bit....


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## SCraig (Mar 3, 2012)

cgipson1 said:


> Beautiful shots, Scott! Have you ever tried a Better Beamer on your flash for some to the "farther away" critters? Extends flash range quite a bit....


No!  But I will!  I hadn't heard of them but just Googled it.  It looks like it's exactly what I need for shots like that.  Both my speedlights run out of gas before they get as far as some of the animals stay, and it looks like that is exactly what that device was designed for.  Thanks for the info, I'll have one of those


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## Austin Greene (Mar 3, 2012)

Great shots! I can't wait until I get to head to the zoo, just have to wait for gas prices to drop a bit


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## SCraig (Mar 3, 2012)

togalive said:


> Great shots! I can't wait until I get to head to the zoo, just have to wait for gas prices to drop a bit


Thanks, I appreciate that and I'm glad you like them.

I'm fortunate in that our zoo is about 2 miles from my home and I keep an annual membership.  It's one of my favorite places to roam around with a camera.  Some times I even stop on the way home from work and unwind for a little while watching the animals.


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## Kazzy (Mar 4, 2012)

Oh animals are my most favourite things. I LOVE these shots.


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## TamiAz (Mar 4, 2012)

Beautiful shots!!


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## Joel_W (Mar 4, 2012)

Great set. The Meerkat picture is just outstanding.


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## teacher386 (Mar 4, 2012)

Absolutely incredible pictures! What gear did you use to capture these?


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## chelynrob (Mar 4, 2012)

I love these


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## SCraig (Mar 4, 2012)

Thank you everyone, very much.  Wildlife and birds are my favorite subjects and I really enjoy shooting them.



teacher386 said:


> Absolutely incredible pictures! What gear did you use to capture these?



They were all shot with my Nikon D90.  Aperture priority (since the light changes so radically depending on where I am in the zoo), matrix metering (which is not normal for me, I usually use center weighted metering).  A couple of them I used an SB-700 speedlight the others were just too far away to benefit from it.  The lens I used yesterday was my Sigma 150-500 zoom.  I don't normally take it to the zoo since I don't normally need that much reach but I had it with me yesterday so I used it.

Next Saturday morning I'm signed up for what they call a "Zoo Photo Safari".  It's a misleading name but kind of interesting.  It's only an hour long but the zoo staff will bring out some of their "Educational Animals" that aren't normally on display and we get to photograph them.  I've been to two of them and while they aren't anything super-special they are interesting and fun.


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## PixelRabbit (Mar 4, 2012)

Nice shots Scott, the Red Panda is my favourite  What a face!


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## SCraig (Mar 4, 2012)

PixelRabbit said:


> Nice shots Scott, the Red Panda is my favourite  What a face!


Thanks.  He's a tough one to get as I said, however I was looking through my zoo pix (there are a LOT of them Here if anyone is interested) and realized that I did have another one of him.  A couple, actually, but this one is my favorite.  If you think that was a look, try this one on for size


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## PixelRabbit (Mar 5, 2012)

Oh my gosh ! Love that one! Your shots of this guy have convinced me to put the zoo on the agenda for this summer


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## MsMGreene (Mar 5, 2012)

Wow, the red panda tongue picture is so candid. You definitely have me inspired to go to the zoo, to capture my own candid moments!


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## SCraig (Mar 5, 2012)

Yeah, he's a cutie.  He's actually quite small as well and that doesn't show up well in the photos.  He's roughly the size of a Cocker Spaniel I'd guess.

Zoos are great places for animal shots.  I seldom have to worry about whether I'll see anything like I do in the wild, but that in and of itself ruins part of the challenge.  When I see something special out in the wild I feel like I've really found something good.  At the zoo it's just a function of hitting the right part of the day so the sun is where I want it.

The zoo does have its own challenges though.  The animals are normally behind a fence or a shield of some sort.  For fences use the lowest aperture possible and they will not even be visible.  "Glass" (although they are normally some sort of acrylic) can be tough because of reflections so watch out for them.  They are a lot of fun though.  I expect to see some shots from you guys this summer!


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## SCraig (Mar 12, 2012)

To anyone interested in the results of the Better Beamer, take a look at This Post.  Thanks again, Charlie!


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