Photos of cute animals

Unless you have the time (and money of course) to go on safari the only way to see exotic animals is in a zoo or wildlife park. You’d think that captive animals are easy to photograph, I mean you know exactly where they are (i.e. you haven’t got to track them), they are in close and they have nowhere to run, however this isn’t the case.
​
Photographing captive animals in zoos and wildlife parks has its own unique problems to overcome, and these are issues you wouldn’t have if the animals were in the wild. For example, you have to do battle with screaming kids, irate parents and other excited members of the general public intent on getting in the way (and they are well within their rights to move to where they can get the best view of the animals), you have to deal with cage bars (which is simple if the animal is far enough away from the bars for you to throw them out of focus using a wide aperture) and you have to deal with highly reflective glass cages and the like. Whilst it is easy to get an okay shot of an animal in captivity getting a great shot of a captive animal is a bit more of a challenge. The following is a selection of shots I managed to capture during a trip to a local zoo.

                     BABY MEERKAT                                                                        LAZY LEOPARD

                        EMERGING OTTER                                                         EMPEROR PENGUIN

                      STIRRING LEOPARD                                                              WARTY HOG

                   WATCHING MEERKAT                                                            LONE MEERKAT