Zebra
Jan, 2020Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken on the back of a rickety trailer as winded its way through small safari park near where I live. The zebra was in one of the paddocks and I managed to capture this with my telephoto lens.Time
The shot was around lunchtime and was the last tour just before the Spanish siesta.Lighting
The sun was shining bright so I was a little worried about getting a good exposure for this shot but when you're on the back of a trailer and you're dealing with wild animals you get very little opportunity to pose a shot. Thankfully the zebra was walking towards us and with the sun high in the sky there was very little shadowing on its face.Equipment
For this shot I handheld my recently purchased Canon EOS M50 with one of the kit lens (55-200mm) at its maximum focal length. I went for a fairly fast shutter speed as I was in a moving vehicle and the zebra was also moving so 1/800th would ensure i pretty sharp image; aperture f6.3, ISO 100.Inspiration
I treated myself to a new camera a month before this photo was taken and as some friends said they were taking the granddaughter to the safari park I felt compelled to go and see what my camera could do. Zebras are great to photograph, i love the contrast of their stripes. I took lots of photographs from the trailer as it pulled us around the guided route and also afterwards as we wandered about on foot.Editing
I don't remember doing much post processing as the images taken by my new camera just looked far superior to the 10 year old DSLR I had been using previously. This one just stood out as a great shot.In my camera bag
My equipment bag has expanded over the past 2 years, I've gone from just the Canon EOS M50 and its 2 kit lenses to adding a Canon EX470AI speedlite, then a wide angle 11-22mm lens, a remote trigger for the flash, a couple of filters (CPL and ND), and then a couple GODOX T6600 speedlites... and of course there's a bundle of spare batteries, torch, colour gels, a very recent addition of extender tubes and a couple of mini tripods alongside my regular tripod. The bag now weighs a tonne but i guess it's quite handy knowing you've got everything you're likely to need for most situations. I have another bag with light stands, speedlite supports, snoots, beauty dish, and other studio paraphernalia.Feedback
I don't think you can really go wrong taking your camera to a zoo or safari park with so many things to photograph. If you're not comfortable with manual mode you have to decide whether you need to choose shutter priority mode for animals that either move about fast or are likely to suddenly move, or maybe aperture priority might be more appropriate for animals a little more sluggish or if you're having to shoot through a wire fence and don't want the fence to feature too much in the shot. You might need to be very patient waiting to get a great composition as animals rarely want to cooperate. Many animals i wanted to photograph were either asleep or facing away from viewing areas, probably because of the heat. It's worth finding out feeding times as this is when they are likely to be more active. Also check with staff about any shows/performances that they might be doing, such as parrots, birds of prey, or sea lions.
