Zoo and Bird parks shots, what to do and what not to do.

We all know that we do not get lots of wildlife to shoot when we are in an island state... actually there are plenty of places that are relatively still wild... (one of them being my room).

Anyway, the two easiest places in Singapore to shoot animals are the Zoo and bird park. So what should we bring to these location? Well... for once, invest some money to get a telezoom lens... telelens (prime) will be better... AF help alot... and image stabilizer is a god sent.

Anyway, for me, I typically would use my DSLR with a 70-200mm lens coupled with a x1.4 teleconverter for bird park shots, and a 300mm lens coupled with a x1.4 teleconverter for zoo shots... and I will not forget my monopod.

Don't worry about people staring at you, or giving you dirty look when you use your monopod. As long as you don't block the entire place or trip them, you can ignore their stares and if you are the adventurous type, you can even give those losers your finger (don't do it, though, we are civilized people).

Well... you can bring your flash too... but try not to fire the flash straight at the poor animal's eyes... imagine yourself being flashed the entire day by irresponsible losers... it is definitely not good for your health. Anyway, you can try using flash, but always look for something to bounce... don't do direct flash.

While in zoo or bird park... the same rules follows... watch out for the expressions of the animals and birds... watch for a story... or make a story for your pic...

There really is no need for the animals to be in full view...

ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/80
Aperture: f/5.6
(Title: Deep in thoughts or Melancholy)



When you are in the zoo or bird park, while there are other people taking pictures of the animals, try not to disturb them... like flashing your flash, making hell of a lot of noises and watch where you are going... some photographers carried their tripod and set them up there... try not to knock into their tripod...

Which bring me to another point... if you have a tripod, try to set your tripod where you will less hinder anyone... do not block the passage way... it really is a nuisence to anyone who have to try to dodge your tripod and there are kids running about.

So in summary... what setup to go for,

1) DSLR
2) 70-200mm f4L (if you have f2.8 lens, that would be so much better).
3) 300mm f4L (if you have f2.8 lens, that would be so much better but that lens is really heavy, so beware)
4) x1.4 teleconverter
5) Water bottle - drinks bought from the zoo or bird park is pretty expensive
6) Sandwiches (food)
7) raincoat for yourself and your camera and lenses

Animal shots for amatuers

It had been features in almost all blogs on photography... and there are detail steps to show how to get great wildlife shots... I read many of them... and they are good stuff... but not all of them works for me. Why? I don't have half the equipment and lenses they have and there are pitifully little amount of really wild life in Singapore.

My typical set up was,

1) DSLR
2) x1.4 teleconverter
3) 70-200mm f4L IS
4) 300mm f4L (non-IS)
5) External flash
6) monopod (I haven't get to use my tripod on this type of shots before).

Well... many wildlife photographers would have scoff at that type of setup. They would point out that a decent reach would be a 500mm and above lens.

But photography is just a hobby... I am not going to spent more than S$10k on a lens that I will use only once in a blue moon.

So I think my setup is enough... afterall, what I shoot is seriously not that far off or dangerous... and for those that are seemingly dangerous are already locked up in cages.

ISO: 640
Shutter Speed: 1/800
Aperture: f/4




Squirrels... being one of the most commonly found 'wildlife' in Singapore, it is actually not that easy to get a good clean shot of the nervous creature.

Well the trick to shoot the squirrel was not to chase it... you would never be fast enough and when they started to climb a tree, chances are, you will not be able to capture them anymore. So... try to move to a more brightly lit area, use a wide enough aperture so that more light can get to your sensor, don't worried about pumping up your ISO, and use a fast enough shutter speed. Try to focus on the squirrel's eyes when you shoot.

Don't use flash if you can help, because flash will scare the animal and they will run off as soon as possible. So I would rather start pumping my ISO.

ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/320
Aperture: f/4



Another most commonly seen animal is the monitor lizard. They are practically everywhere in the park. Like the squirrel... these are afraid of humans, and they would run off as soon as you startled them. So, the trick is to keep very quiet, don't go too near, the lizard will be startled... and worst, it will attack. So keep a distance, and shoot at it... be sure to go as close to the ground as possible, so that you can shoot the create at eye level. No use shooting at it while you are hovering over it... it would look pretty ugly.

ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/320
Aperture: f/4


Well who can forget the dragonfly... these magnificent insect are lovely in both colour and structure. They are good poser too... they will remain calm and steady for you to shoot. Just remember don't get too close or they will fly off.

Anyway, IS, OS, VR, VC and any form of image stabilization really help when you shoot wildlife, they keep your lens steady and enable you to get pretty sharp images. Also shoot at a higher shutter speed, so as to capture movement of the animal.

Taking animal shots are easy enough if you have good equipments... all the shots can be very sharp and clear... but those are not interesting shots... it don't give your photo the wow factor... it was just like one of the shots randomly picked up from the net...

So you need to watch for the expression of the animals... because animals... like human, had great expressions.

ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/30
Aperture: f/6.3

ISO: 200
Shutter Speed: 1/60
Aperture: f/6.3



Sometime you just don't get that expression... you would just have to be very patient and wait. Sooner or later you are gonna capture an interesting expression,

ISO: 100
Shutter Speed: 1/200
Aperture: f/5.6


It took me around one plus hour of waiting to find a cute expression from this bird when it swallow a fish. I didn't get to shoot the time when it ate the fish... and frankly... I don't want to do that. I want to shoot it giving this strange and cute expression.

Finally... I cannot stress enough on the important of your photos telling a story... alook at the lioness on top... it tell a story too... like why was she angry, what is she looking at and things like that.

And who say animal shots don't tell story, those are just bullshits. It is up to the photographer to create a shot that actually tell stories.

ISO: 1250
Shutter Speed: 1/320
Aperture: f/5.6



I called the above pic, "LOVE"... why... you think about it yourself.

ISO: 640
Shutter Speed: 1/320
Aperture: f/5.6


And this is "Quarrel" or "Lover Quarrel"

And the final in this series would be "Filial Piety"

ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/60
Aperture: f/5.6


Well... so as you can see... animals are like humans, they have their own facial expression and your photos can tell a story too. The abovementioned are only a few of the pic of a animals that I have taken that tell a story as well as having good expression.

The rules for streets photography also apply here to some extend too.

But a few things that you have to remember - Be Safe... and don't be a hero. Don't get too close to the wild animals... they will attack.

What to use to shoot good streets photography?

Camera!

Seriously... that is all you need... any point and shoot camera, mobile phone camera and stuff like that can be used.

This shot is taken using my Samsung Jet mobile phone... and it is not a really good camera too. But to take a good photo, camera's lens sharpness, colour contrast, details are all secondary... what is more useful is the composition and what make that shot count.

The photo show of a young couples... from the look of the young woman, she is definitely in love with the guy... And you can make a story out of it too.

Think of something interesting to take... and not just shoot at everything you see...

To me... that was a pretty interesting photo... it clearly show that the seat was reversed for the four type of categories... but a seemingly young fella was sitting there and sleeping with his mouth open... well... that is a story,

1) Was he sick or simply uncare for the rest of the world around him
2) Why was he so tire?

This is one of my favourite shot... it give us some dimensions and space to think...

1) Why was this old man cramped in the train?
2) Where is he going?
3) He look haggard, why didn't anyone give up their seat to him and that he had to be sitting on the ground?
4) He is carrying quite a number of bags... is there anyone helping him?



And sometime, to bring up your subjects... you might link a couple of shots to the series... make sure that all of them are in the same place that you took them. For example - train... and from there, try to find something that would be of interest to shoot. And for the following photos, we see a certain link between them... inconsideration of people on train.



We see young and seemingly abled young girl sitting in a seat normally reserved for people with needs and young man who take up two seat on a train.

So as you can see... to have a fabulous camera and great lenses could give you very good photos but even with a lousy camera, you can still get great shots... story and composition behind the shots are what counts.

The street is a dangerous place to be in... or was it?

I have taken into liking the streets more and more... and like I always said, "One street, different stories." so yeah... it is pretty fun shooting in the streets. But how to get good shots? Well... there are a couple of ways...

1) Talk to your subject, ask for permission to take a photo of them. I did that sometime, but not a whole lot of time... because somehow, when I asked them if I could take a photo of them... and they agreed... they would start to pose. I find that unnatural... and the pic don't tell a story behind it.

2) Take candid shots. This is what I do most of the time with my 7D + 70-200mm f4L or 28mm f2.8 lens. I just shoot when I find something interesting. One method that I find very useful was to position my camera to aim in an entire area (close to a smaller aperture, and when someone walks into the frame 'click'!)

In this photo, I knew that there will be someone coming out from behind the door and so I purposely position my camera at that area, then waited patiently... immediately when someone came through, I shoot.

This photo too... I was using a wide angle lens (28mm) and position at one area, keeping a pretty small aperture so that the DOF is deeper. Then I shoot when someone walked into the frame like the two subjects.

You will find it pretty interesting that something these subjects even felt embaress that they have ruin your shots... but in actual fact... they have made your shot.

It is also one of the crucial techniques to take photos of subject that was in contrast or out of space with the rest of the background. For example, in a very modern society whereby we are seeing large number of machineries, but there is just this single subject that is different and very manual. Another example would be the photo on the right.
In this photo, I purposely took this shot to show the contrast between the main subject and the rest of the scene... whereby everyone was already using cars but we have someone on bicycle... And was in the wrong direction as compared to the vehicles.

It is also good to take a series of shots, as it will tell a good story behind those shot,



The above pics show of a boy sitting... he seemed pretty curious, then he notice me shooting at him and scrowl his face. It was pretty funny... and it is this type of pictures that actually tell the story. But in this case, the series had an ending and that ending was the boy not happy at someone shooting photos of him.

There are also the open ended story,

taking this pic for an example... it is a good photo with an open end story, it will give the audience space to think about the photo...

Questions like,

1) What is the old man taking photo of?
2) Why is he so well dressed?
3) What is behind those wrinkled face?
4) What is the story behind the old man, why is he so seemingly serious about the shots he is taking?

Well it is this type of questions that give the photo an open end story... and it make the photo better than the one featuring the kid.

This is another photo with an open end story... the person using her mobile phone to take photos... so it actually give the audience an open end story... and dimensions to think...

1) Who is the person, where was she from?
2) What was the photo she was taking? Was it a building, was it her friends?

In streets, your photos don't even had to be sharp, taking the woman for example, she was not really sharp, the focus was the story behind... or the lack of an ending.

In streets photography, there really is no need for your pic to be in full color. Many a times, black and white give similar or better impact.

This old man in black and white had a much bigger impact on the audience as compared to coloured photo. And like the above photos, it gave an open end story that encourage audience to think... to be more involved.

And you don't really need to have a complete picture whereby your subject is in full view... body... face... hair... whatever. Sometime part of the body is visible while other are not was also a good way to give the audience a pretty good dimensions for their imagination to run.

In the photo to the right... it didn't show the face of the old man... only his white hair.

It give audience a number of questions too...

1) Where is the old man heading alone, why he wanted to go there?
2) How he looked like
3) Where is he when this photo is taken.

and to some extend, 4) where is he now?

Well my point in street taking is that there are many stories behind the photos... and what make a good photo... of course not the beautiful girls and handsome jocks... but photos that tell a story... and to make the photo more appealing... it must have a story that is open ended, and with dimension or area for people to think and imagine.

The ISO are there for a reason

Well... I have been hearing alot of people talking about noises in the photos and most even go to the extend of not raising their ISO over 400 or 500.
 
Yes, we all acknowledged that with higher ISO, there will also be higher level of noise in their photos... but sometime... infact lots of time, there simply is no choice at all... so please, don't limit yourself. There are many ways of making your photo pleasing, even with some noise.
 
B&W - shoot in black and white or post process your photos to B&W.
 

ISO: 5000
Shutter speed: 1/80
Aperture: f/4

 
If you look closely, there are noise in this photo... but actually the noise control is quite well... and it have kind of a pleasing touch to it.
 

ISO: 5000
Shutter speed: 1/25
Aperture: f/4



 
In the above photo... you cannot even detect the noise. That is because I have PP away the noise by making it B&W, then darken the background, while the light falls directly on the subject, so he remain nice and sharp.

Make your photo smaller: Yes... this is like lying to yourself... but lets face it... do you actually look at a photo 100% cropped? Many would say - yes (and that is lying to yourself again). Anyway, I find this method pretty useful. Make your photo smaller, it will still retain enough sharpness and detail to make your shots pleasing.

ISO: 3200
Shutter speed: 1/200
Aperture: f/5.6

ISO: 2500
Shutter Speed: 1/250
Aperture: f/5.6

The second pic of this runner series is shot at a lower ISO... but still considered as high ISO value... and you can hardly detect any noise in it.

Note: all of the above shots are shot by a Canon EOS 7D and it is a crop sensor which is smaller even then some of the cropped sensor cameras in the market like Nikon, Sony, Pentax and even Samsung's offering. So if this camera can take this type of picture, imagine yourself with a bigger cropped sensor camera and/or using a Full Frame camera.

So my point is... don't be afraid to pump up your ISO. The manufacturer include these ISO there for a reason, and that is for you to take good photos...

Water-proof and Weather-proof, same thing?

Been hearing this alot... and lately fanboys of whatever brands had been gloating alot in the forum that I have frequent for photography tips and to meet people (friendly people).

Anyway, there is this post where by some random forumers complained that the weather-sealing of the Canon EOS 7D is a joke. He brought his camera out and shoot in a drizzle and the camera died... well... it was not suppose to, the 7D had weather sealing.

I was skeptical of what that fella is saying, because I stay in the same country as that person and trust me... Singapore is not a very large place... and the area that I am at that time is just 2 streets from where he is... and at that time, I am hiding in a shelter, not able to move at all... because it is pouring and there are lightning, thunder, huge winds, and... you get what I mean.

So what that fella say is simply not true, maybe what he want is just to get a free service out of our service center so the untruth saying...

And so let us look into this matter... say... if he actually was caught in a heavy downpour and his 7D died... was it suppose to die... it say weather seal.

Well... weather sealing, as many had mistaken, was not water proofing... you still cannot or not recommend to dump your camera in water. Water might still sip through... and not to mention, during a rainstorm, don't go out with your camera... it is asking for trouble.

That fella got unlucky, water eventually sipped into his camera and short circuit it... thats it, end of story... all the rest, about him waiting in starbuck for half an hour, water dry and he went out to the drizzle again and his camera died... are all blalant lies.

There are no DSLR out there who could safely say that they are water proof... at most they could claim that their camera had better weather sealing capability as compared to others. But in a storm, the only thing that can protect your camera is you in a shelter, away from the weather.

So when you buy your camera, when it said - the camera had weather sealing, don't think that you can go running into the rain and happily shoot your photos without any forms of protection.

Common Terms of Photography

Ok, been hearing alot of newbies or aspiring photographers who actually either get them wrong or was thoroughly confused by them. So I am going to put them here,
 
Aperture - the aperture is a hole in which light went through in optic's term. Well, the aperture opening is made up of blades (not the one that can kill you) in the lens. For fully manual lens, there is a control ring on the lens for you to tune which aperture you want, for some of the older automatic nikon lens, they have it too. For fully automatic lenses the aperture opening of a lens can be controlled from the camera itself. Aperture is usually presented as f-value. The bigger the f-value the smaller the aperture opening.
 
Aperture when opened wider would have narrower or shallower Depth of Field (which mean lesser area of a scene is in focus), while aperture when narrower have deeper Depth of Field (which mean more area are in focus).
 
(e.g. f2.8 - small area of a scene are in focus - sharp. f32 - big area or the entire scene are in focus).
 
ISO - International Standard Organization (serious!). Anyway, in photography or camera case, the ISO value was a standardise measurement of the sensitivity of your sensor or film to light. The higher the ISO value the more sensitive the sensor or film was to light. This is important in the case whereby a flash is not allow and you are to shoot at terrible lighting, when you raise your ISO value, you can actually achieve good enough shutter speed and aperture opening to capture an image. What is bad... the higher the ISO value of your sensor, the more noise on your photo.
 
Noise - noise in photography are not the thing that you hear that can be real annoying. Although noise is equally annoying though. Noise normally looked like fine or coarse grains in your photos, some with varying colors (usually red). They can be distracting and they make your photos lose details and sharpness. However noise can be pleasing to the eyes too, if you know how to manipulate them... it will give you some touch of vintage quality.

Shutter Speed - This is the speed in which your shutter opened and closed. You need to open your shutter and expose the sensor to light coming through from the lens in order to capture a pic. So the faster the shutter opened and close, the lesser the light was to hit the surface of your sensor at a given amount of time.
 
Fast shutter speed will freeze motion, while slow shutter speed will give you a more blurry pic of moving object. However at time, you need to achieve slow shutter speed, one typical usage was to create a soft silky feel to moving water. Another was when you are taking landscape shot with very small aperture opening so you need the shutter to be opened longer to allow more light to hit the sensor.
  
These are the few terms that should get you started in photography. Later on, I will start adding terms for items like filter (screw in or square), flash, etc.