Recent Madrid Zoo Visit

Orias · December 15, 2015

Hey guys,

Recently visited Madrid Zoo (again), and here are some of the shots I ended up with. Would love any critique/feedback. I am definitely seeing improvements year-over-year though. I would love to have the chance to do this in the wild, as opposed to having to go to a zoo .. but Madrid does seem to be one of the better ones:

Palm Pit Viper:

Eurasian Eagle Owl
Eurasian%20Eagle%20Owl-XL.jpg

Albino Diamondback Rattlesnake

A very well-fed Hippo

Red Panda

Suspicious Giraffe

Thanks very much,
Cheers, James

Richard · December 15, 2015

Nice set. I especially like the composition of the hippo and pit viper. They don't look like zoo shots, which is good.

Orias · December 15, 2015

Thanks very much!

One of my main aims is to always try and remove the "zoo aspect" from the pictures, so it's good to know that it's noticeable. I can see from your pics that you're familiar with Madrid Zoo too .. great shots

Cheers, James

Cavalier · December 15, 2015

Really nice series. I agree with Richard - they don't seem like zoo shots. The pit viper, hippo and giraffe are spectacular.

Stumblebum · December 15, 2015

Hippo, Panda, Giraffe! Really cool!

pathfinder · December 15, 2015

I like these too.

Did you clean the glass on the cages of the snakes before shooting? There are usually so many finger prints and palm prints on them, I have learned to carry a micro fibre cloth the task in the zoo or an aquarium..

Great set of images!

Orias · December 15, 2015

Thanks everyone

I didn't clean the glass, no. The glass is relatively clean here and a lot of the enclosures are actually behind 2 sets of glass. It can be tricky to find an angle where there's not a lot of reflections, especially as the florescent lights from the enclosures on the other side of the room reflect directly across to each other.

If the glass is dirty, I will usually just adjust angles to find a clear spot. I actually have more issues with the dirt inside the enclosure, and especially the condensation/mist that gathers on the inside of some of them.

Thanks again, appreciate the feedback

Cheers, James

pathfinder · December 15, 2015

I use a rubber lens hood some times to help with reflections, since I can press the rubber hood onto the glass and seal out the light causing reflections sometimes. I do like the clarity of both snake images.

Brett1000 · December 16, 2015

clean glass pics look good !

Orias · December 17, 2015

Thanks guys,

I do remove some dirt/reflections with Lightroom/Photoshop if I can .. but there's only so much you can do with that. Always better to get a clean shot in the first place. I find that shooting at a slight angle, rather than straight on, usually helps to eliminate a lot of the reflections and blemishes.

The particular shots above were clean to start with thankfully, so I didn't need any spot removal or anything like that.

Cheers