pollycharliestyrene

Smile

A meerkat, photographed at Woburn Safari Park and he even smiled for the camera.

A meerkat, photographed at Woburn Safari Park and he even smiled for the camera.
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Canon EOS 1200D

settings

Aperture 28/5 ISO 800 Shutter 1/500 Focal Length 300/1

upload_date

Jun, 2016

Views

199

Likes

Awards

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken at Woburn Safari Park. There was a feeding demonstration at the meerkat enclosure and so we headed over there early to get a good vantage point. It was the last feed of the day, the sun was lower in the sky, so I didn't want to be shooting into the sun.

Time

It was about 4:30pm on a beautiful sunny summers day.

Lighting

As it was warm and sunny under clear blue skies, the light was very warm and orange in the sun but lots of the meerkat enclosure was in shade so had to expose for shade and still try and make it warm with a slightly slower shutter speed.

Equipment

It was taken using a Canon 1200D and a Tamron 70-300 lens. Handheld, no tripod.

Inspiration

I love meerkats and animals in general but I'm heartily respectful that animals are just that, so I'll probably never go on safari. This is the closest I'll get to seeing them 'wild'.

Editing

No, strangely enough! I usually do something with most of my photos but this one was just good as it was.

In my camera bag

My standard kit is huge and I thin it down for what I'm off to shoot but as a minimum for outdoors it will be camera body, the Tamron lens, a canon 18-55 lens, an ND filter, a polarising filter, a graduated ND filter, a spare battery, spare card and sometimes a flash. Very rarely a tripod and always a cleaning cloth.

Feedback

Get a long lens, get to where you want to shoot before others if you can so you can bag yourself a good spot. Try and figure out where the 'feed' will take place or where the animals are congregating. Double check the lighting and adjust your white balance to get the picture as close to natural as possible. Take several shots - after your test shots when you're happy with the lighting, shutter speed (needs to be pretty quick), ISO etc keep clicking and don't stop to check what you're getting because the minute you drop the camera to look at the playback, the animals will do the can-can or something and you'll miss it.

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pollycharliestyrene

pollycharliestyrene

Smile

A meerkat, photographed at Woburn Safari Park and he even smiled for the camera.

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow pollycharliestyrene

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