Caldwell Zoo Photos

[savitale]

Caldwell Zoo in Tyler is a very nice place, with lots of photo opportunities. This was my first visit there, I bought a membership (only $20). It is not a huge facility, it is actually a very manageable size. And all of the enclosures and habits are well done, it does not have the 2nd generation zoo feel, like the Dallas Zoo for example.

[Panther]

Howdy Steven,

Caldwell Zoo is really a neat place isn't it, we went a year or so again and loved it.

I thought it was so neat to see several different species in the same areas,and especially the area where the Elephants. Giraffes,Plains Area, and the Lions were. It looked like they were all out there on the open plain together.

[Robin Binder]

Great work, all my zoo photos have a fence between me and the animals, it hard to get those open plain look.

[laurielblack]

Nice shots...Caldwell Zoo is my favorite place to shoot (as far as zoos go) and I am there pretty often. It's definitely the most photography-friendly zoo in the area and one can almost always compose shots so that they don't look so "zoo-ish" (if that's a word!). :)

[QRasco]

Just a couple of years ago, it use to be free to get in. They asked for a "donatation," but you did not have to give. Time changes everything.

Good pictures by the way.

[savitale]

Originally Posted by RmgB

Great work, all my zoo photos have a fence between me and the animals, it hard to get those open plain look.

Yeah, I used to really dislike zoo photography compared to natural environment wildlife photography. But it costs $4,000 for me to go to Kenya, and it costs $10 to go to the zoo. And there are some really amazing zoo photographs out there, and quite a few in this Forum. So I decided to give it a try.

I find that if I take the time to find the animals which are conveniently located, rather than those of which I "wanted" to take photos, I can do alright. Does anyone have any good suggestions for taking zoo photos? Some things that seem to help me are:

1. Get very close to the fence, and find animals that are far from the fence, and far from and man made walls or objects.

2. Open up your lens as far as it will go.

3. Shoot when the fence is in shade, not sunlight.

4. When you don't have bright sunlight on the subject, go to higher ISO rather than longer exposure, to minimize blur due to the movement of the animal.

5. Some enclosures make it impossible. So for those animals, just enjoy them for who they are, and save your "film" for the next one.