This weekend my partner and I went to Whipsnade Zoo for my birthday! Naturally I took the opportunity to practise some new-found photography knowledge whilst we were there. They also have rockhopper and African penguins, which I’d say are a pretty perfect subject for practising photography for Antarctica…
All of the photos in this post were taken using a Canon EOS2000D, with a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 4/135 telephoto lens. I plan on taking this model camera body with me South, but with some more modern lenses. That said, playing around with manual focus, whilst frustrating when well-framed shots are blurry, is super useful.
What I’ve learned about aperture priority
Whilst I’ve used this camera at events before, this was my first time trying to use it ‘properly’! I spent a bit of time this week learning about aperture priority and how to use it to control focal length, allowing blurred backgrounds. This is what I focused on when we were there. I admit, I didn’t apply much nuance in the aperture selection – I either set it to the highest or lowest depending of if I wanted background blur or not, leaving the in-between settings feeling a bit left out. A job for future me to practise with I guess.
To explain it simply, a low aperture value will reduce the amount of objects in focus, based on their distance to the camera. This is known as the focal range, or depth of field, which in this case is reduced. This usually results in a blurred background (and foreground). On the other hand a large aperture value increases the depth of field, meaning a lot more of the shot will be in focus. Here’s some cute images of a ring-tailed lemur (my partner’s favourite marsupial!) demonstrating the effect:
A large aperture is also really useful for moving subjects if you’re a beginner like me. The subject will stay in focus much longer if moving towards/away from the camera. Something for me to keep in mind if I get to photograph some albatross!
Anyway, this blog isn’t meant to be a camera tutorial…
About the Zoo
Penguins!
More Photos: