On Safari at Zoo Atlanta

Sorry, I didn’t have a very verbal post yesterday.  I was tired after editing my photos and just wanted to get them online.  Thomas, however, posted a good description of our class on his blog.

Western Lowland Gorilla

Gorilla

First of all, the class was wonderful and I highly recommend it. Ron Mayhew taught it through Emory Continuing Education.   The class was geared more toward photographers with digital SLRs, and I mostly used a Sigma 50-500mm on my Nikon D50.

Ostrich (Struthio camelus)

Ostrich

There was a little bit of instruction, but most of the time was spent photographing the animals. What made it different from a regular trip to the zoo is that we got to go behind the scenes to get photos up close.

Orangutan

Orangutan

The day started out with a talk about minimizing the zoo-y (fences, unnatural lines, glass reflection) look in your photos. Next, we had a group tour of the overall zoo. After lunch and some more instruction, we had our close up sessions with the gorillas, orangutans, giraffes, ostriches, and birds.

Adolescent Verreaux's Eagle-owl (Bubo lacteus

Eagle Owl

At the beginning, the instructor asked us what single thing we wanted to focus on for the class. I said that I wanted to get a nice portrait of an animal, and I’m happy with a few shots that I captured.  I think the big keys are patience and a telephoto lens.

Western Lowland Gorilla

Gorilla

If you want to see more, I’ve posted the whole set on Flickr:

Related posts:

  1. Atlanta in One Year
  2. Atlanta Race for the Cure
  3. Atlanta Pride Festival

8 Comments

  1. simon says:

    Love the eagle owl.

    simon´s last blog post..Unselfconsciousness

  2. Cynthia says:

    I absolutely love the last photo of the gorilla in your post, the expression in his eyes, amazing! Sounds like a great class to take sometime.

  3. Derelys says:

    I agree with Cynthia. The photo (portrait?) of the gorilla is my favorite of all the ones in this set that you’ve posted here and on flickr.

  4. Rebekah says:

    I love all of the open mouthed shots that you got!

  5. the eagle owl picture is my favorite.

    amy (sew~amy)´s last blog post..flower quilt and my tea towel

  6. Diane Mandy says:

    Those are some amazing photos. How could I possible choose a favorite?

    Diane Mandy´s last blog post..Untitled

  7. Lisa's Chaos says:

    I enjoyed looking at your set. I love them all, I’d say your trip was successful!

    Lisa’s Chaos´s last blog post..Well ruffle my feathers

  8. [...] I was instantly drawn to Parc Paradisio in our Belgium guide book because it promised hundreds of exotic birds.  When we arrived, we discovered the price was higher than a normal zoo at almost 20 euros per person, but we figured after our 1.5 hour drive, we couldn’t turn around just yet.  I’ll admit that I was disappointed at first, when we found cages of birds lining the sidewalk.  They were beautiful, exotic birds, but I have become spoiled in my zoo photography after our Behind the Scenes Atlanta Zoo Tour. [...]

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