The Bacchus Marsh and District Photography Club had an outing to the Melbourne Zoo. It was a cool windy day, some animals didn’t make a showing but it was overall an enjoyable time, trying to get some good shots.
All shots are taken with Aperture priority.
These first two photos were taken with my Nikon Z6ii with a Sigma 150-600 Contemporary Nikon F mount lens (with the Nikon FTZ adapter).
These were the first two subjects on arrival, so I wasn’t really thinking about camera settings, plus I’d forgotten that the camera had the image stabilisation turned off. These two photos aren’t great, I’ve managed to salvage some sharpness using Lightroom Classic, but they are definitely not as sharp as they could be.
I decided to switch to a Tamron Z mount 70-300 lens, this is Tamron’s first Z mount lens, and so far I’m enjoying using it. It was at this point I realised that a) I needed to turn image stabilisation back on and b) I needed to focus (pun intended) on my settings and making sure that the shutter speed was high enough for both potential camera wobble ad animal movement.
This next shot is one of many I took in the butterfly enclosure. It was very warm and humid, and because the day had started cold and windy I was wearing several layers of clothing and a hat. This is also a big draw for kids, so while I wanted to spend more time in the enclosure I only managed a few decent shots and this was my favourite.
This shot was an elephant on it’s own having some fun with two large plastic objects on chains. It seemed to be having fun.
The orangutans weren’t very active, I assume due to the cold, this shot I was pleased with, it was almost like a model looking over their shoulder at the camera.
The meercats are always cute and while the constant head turning can cause frustration but I was happy with this shot.
Finally wombats, their positioning wasn’t great, I had tried a framing shot with two large mounds of dirt framing but I wasn’t happy with that so cropped in close.
Overall I’m relatively happy with these shots, the day wasn’t too bad for lighting, I just wish I’d spent some more time at the start getting my camera settings right.
