Birthday Week: Day 3 - Birmingham Wildlife Centre
After the success of my visit to Dudley Zoo I really wanted to come to the Wildlife Centre, even though I despise driving through Birmingham. The storm was still threatening and even though the winds were high there were really nice patches of bright sun, which I hadn’t had when in Dudley. I’ve been to the Wildlife centre before but not for years so I wasn’t sure if it would still be the same, in fact last time was about 3 years ago and it was in the middle of summer so looked completely different. I was also happy that it was quiet as I can feel quite awkward when taking photos., but I was curious whether it would be quiet with the animals too since it was so cold.
The first animal I came across to photograph were the Agouti, little rodents I don’t remember ever I’ve seeing before. This guy was really curious and wanted to know what I was doing so it was fun to have him come say hi for a while. Also, how cute is his little tongue?! He was preening quite a lot so I took advantage of being outside to have a high shutter speed and catch him licking. Little moments like this are definitely what I’m looking for at the moment with my photography.
I wandered for a little while and spent time watching the Tamarin monkeys huddling up together before I came up to the otters. They were all indoors and play fighting in their box, and I couldn’t blame them for wanting to spend most of their time indoors and curled up since it was so cold outside. Later on I saw them out but they were too quick, popping for a drink before running back into their box. This was another opportunity for me to use the ridiculously quick shutter speed on the Z7 to try and catch this yawn and while I’m happy with what I captured it’s not as 100% sharp as I’d like.
When I was at Dudley Zoo I had a terrible time spotting the snakes in the reptile house but I had much better luck in Birmingham. It’s only small in comparison to the one at Dudley Zoo but the animals were really active. To be able to get the use out of the high shutter speed I was experimenting with auto-ISO, which I never normally use because I don’t want the noise and I prefer to control the settings, but in low light settings like this where I want a minimum shutter speed to capture movement like the tongue, it’s better to let the camera keep adjusting. I love the colours in these environments, and the lizard was quite active using his tongue to feel his way to the water.
Red Pandas are quickly becoming my favourite to shoot and it wasn’t until I was at Dudley that I’ve ever had any luck with them. These guys were back and forth across the bridges and were really curious about me! I thought he looked so adorable with the little bit of leaf in his mouth. Getting a shot of red pandas eating is definitely on my bucket list. As I was trying to find my way out I realised I was at the back of the red panda enclosure and managed to capture this last cheeky shot sitting on top of their little shed. The top image of the red panda portrait is one of my favourite images I’ve ever taken; it’s so clean and sharp, and I love the composition.
Dudley Zoo had a good range of birds and it was the first time I’d had luck shooting through the fences so when I spotted these Ibis I knew I wanted to try to capture them. I have been really enjoying learning how to better shoot through fences and while I’m not always successful I feel like I’m progressing. One thing I’ve learned is that the further away from the caging the animal is, the more the camera is able to blur it out and make it clearer, like the image on the right. I really like these Ibis, I think they’re cool-looking and I like the composition of the top image, where the Ibis is situated between the logs and the foliage on the left curls nicely around the frame. I’m also getting in to the tight crops next to a wider image.
As I was getting quickly lost in the maze of the park I came across a Komodo dragon. I’ve never seen one in real life before but Pete was so cool! There is a video in his enclosure telling you about their island and how dangerous they are and you can fully appreciate just how quick and strong they must be because he was just sitting there watching me with what looks like a hungry look on his face. Terrifying, but also really cool. It felt like watching a mythical creature.
Earlier in the week my mom had been poking fun at the fact I’ve always wanted to photograph the deer at Hagley Park but I’ve never been able to get close enough (the longest lens I have is an 85mm so don’t be too surprised). When I pulled into the car park of the Wildlife park and saw these antelope I was really happy for the opportunity. My only gripe with the place was that I had such a hard time navigating around but I asked a member of staff and he was amazing, walking me right over to their enclosure and chatting to me about the animals and where it’s best to stand to view them. The male wasn’t out on this occasion because it was so cold but I’m really happy with what I did get. Just look how fluffy she looks!
As recommended by the keeper I did a few loops of the antelope, watching rather than shooting, then headed back across the bridge to see if the lemurs had come outside yet. Unfortunately they hadn’t but the wildlife park has a great viewing window for while they’re inside. Watching the lemurs is always fun, but these guys were happily teasing each other with food which made me laugh. I’ll admit that these are quite strategically cropped images but I love the portrait look and again how clean the image is. The reflections on the glass were really hard to dodge but just look at the beautiful bokeh (circular blurring) the lens has created at the top of the right hand image, it’s so pretty. I don’t mind the reflections so much if they’re adding something unique and interesting like this.
I really struggled to find the exit of the park, which is a great strategy to keep guests longer! But I was getting tired and eager to get back to edit. The two other animals I wanted to get were the Ocelot, who was curled up asleep, and the Lynx who was happily eating a mouse but too close to the thick bars of the enclosure to get any good shots of. I definitely want to go back in the spring when it’s warmer to capture more, and there are other animals I didn’t see such as the red squirrels that I’d like to look at next time. They also have a few great wildlife and nature areas too which should be lovely for garden birds come spring too.
All in all I came home with a lot of images I love and got to spend time learning about and watch the animals, whilst my entry fee supports their challenge of helping conserve endangered species.
