Jaguar_7251
Aug, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at the Henry Dorley Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska.Time
The image was taken mid morning, just before a feeding.Lighting
This was shot through glass, looking into the Jaguar's indoor quarters. There was a skylight in the top of the area. When I shoot in zoo environments, I try to avoid showing cages or enclosures if possible. This makes it a little more difficult to figure out where the image was taken. In the series that I shot, I tried to compose the shots so that the Jaguar was in the light, and in front of a dark background. This made him stand out, and give good contrast to the images. The series was all available sunlight coming into his enclosure.Equipment
This series was taken with a Canon 70D body, with a Tamron18-270mm lens. The shots were hand held at an ISO of 6400, aperture 63/10, shutter 1/160, focal length on lens was at 270mm. All available light, no fill flash.Inspiration
The cat house at Henry Dorley is done quite well. There are many varieties of large cats, and great opportunities to capture images, both indoors and outdoors. Jaguars and Leopards have been cats I have always tried to capture quality images of. This opportunity presented itself, and I took full advantage! I had about 3 minutes of shooting time before the zoo docent brought the food to my subject! After the food arrived, he was no longer interested in walking around and posing for me!Editing
I have yet to grab a digital image, on any camera, that I have not had to do some sort of post production on! These images turned out well, and I had minimal processing to do. I do all of my editing in Photoshop. I did a slight unsharp mask, and tweaked the levels to control the highlights/shadows/mid tones. There was some slight burning on the background and under the Jaguar, to help give a little more separation from the background. There was also some slight dodging of the eyes to make the color pop a little brighter!In my camera bag
I carry Canon bodies (70D, t4i), Canon lenses (20-35mm zoom, 75-300mm zoom) Tamron (18-270mm zoom), if I need a longer lens I usually rent it for the job. I also carry a GoPro Hero3+ Black, just incase there needs to be a time lapse shot!Feedback
When shooting in zoos, pay attention to your foregrounds and backgrounds. In this case, I was shooting through glass. I needed to find an angle to shoot where there were not distracting reflections that I would have to take out in post! I also didn't want to show brick and mortar! I had to choose my shots carefully when the Jag was walking around. I shot when he gave me a clean background! Try to avoid showing the "Hand Of Man" in your shots when shooting animals! it will make them look more natural!
