Animal antics
Photoplus reader Kevin heads to the British Wildlife Centre with the intent on honing his skills photographing wild animals
Iset off to the British Wildlife Centre (before lockdown) in Surrey, armed with my Canon 200D and Sigma 18-300mm. This was the only lens that I needed, as I was going to be close to the animals, but I also packed a small tripod and a bean bag.
In preparation, I went through the list of the resident animals on their website, so that I could find the species I wanted close-up shots of and find them quickly and easily.
Not knowing the layout of the British Wildlife Centre I did not know what obstacles I would be facing, but when I arrived there were actually very few issues, as the enclosures are very good for photographers. Despite rain on the day I was happy with the images I came away with.
My strategy was to see if I could get down to their eye level and gain some trust – as it is a well visited centrel, I did not think this would be much of a problem. The issue would be in getting a good enough shot of each particular animal, most of the time it was a waiting game for the animals to settle, and combating the rain, but after lunch the weather did improve.
I had most luck with the otters and scottish wild cat. For each of these images, I laid flat on the grass… it was a case of waiting for the right time to take the photograph, with my camera resting on a bean bag and gradually crawling closer to them. With the otter I went to the other end of their enclosure, away
When I arrived there were actually very few issues, as the enclosures are very good for photographers
from other people. The two otters came within touching distance, so I was able to get the fantastic shot as he was looking directly at me.
At the end of the day, I probably took close to 1000 photographs over a six hour period. When it came to editing, I did very little work. I simply wanted to reduce some of the camera shake and removed the odd twig or blade of grass that was pulling the eye away from the focal point of the animals.