教你在动物园拍靓照

Most of us love taking pictures of animals. Forget about Africa. There are excellent zoos and wild animal parks that you can do this. However, there are certainly challenges* to photographing animals at a zoo. Here are some tips:

Gear up

At least, you should bring a good zoom lens* (at least to 200mm), a tripod* for taking pictures in the dim light of animal houses, and a lens hood to reduce glare* if you're shooting outside on a sunny day. Find a map of the zoo, and note the locations of any animals that you're interested in. Do some research to find out if there are certain times of day when certain animals are more active.

Shooting through fences

Since most zoos don't let you get up close and personal with the animals, chances are that you'll have to photograph them through a fence*. If you can get close enough to poke your camera lens through the gaps in the fence without breaking any zoo rules or endangering* yourself or your gear, try that. You can also look for larger gaps around gates or spots where you can look over or under the fence.

If there's simply no way around the fence between you and the animal, your best bet is to use a long focal length lens and a wide aperture* setting. You might have to manually* focus, if your camera can't decide whether to focus on the fence or what's behind it, but you'll probably notice that with a selective focus on the animal and a shallow depth of field, the fence will blur out* so that you'll hardly notice it.

Shooting through glass

The glass enclosures common in some animal houses and water-related exhibits sometimes pose an greater challenge than fences. If the glass is clean enough, you might be able to shoot right through it. Otherwise, carry a cloth to wipe an area of glass clean if you can get up close to it, and put your camera lens right up against the glass. If you must shoot from farther back, turn off the flash and use a tripod.

Get a closer look

While you can't usually get physically closer to the animals, try to zoom in as much as possible on your subjects. If you can, try focusing on just a part of the animal — the bird's eye, the tiger's whiskers*, the hippo's giant snout*. Try to create a feeling of intimacy* with your subject.

challenge 挑战

zoom lens 变焦镜头

tripod 三角架

glare 强光

fence 栅栏

endanger 危及

aperture 光圈

manually 手动

blur out 模糊

whisker 胡须

snout 口鼻部

intimacy 亲密