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I was at the San Diego zoo this last Thursday the fourth. It was a beautiful
day with the high of 75 F.
What I would like to know is how did you manage to shoot through all the
wire mesh between you and the animals? I was using the 20D with the kit lens
18-55 MM.
I felt for many of the people with P&S cameras as the auto focus most likely
was on the mesh fence and not the animal.
I am a member of the zoo and will be going back many times. Just want to get
another lens. Thinking of the 17-85 IS .
I like the wide shots and then I can crop in PS.

>What I would like to know is how did you manage to shoot through all the
>wire mesh between you and the animals?

If you're shooting thru bars with a wide enough gap between the bars,
you could force the camera to use a specific focus point, then put that
between the bars at the animal. If you do have a mesh to shoot thru
and would confound even a manually chosen focus point, you only can
resort to manual focus.

On Sun, 7 Aug 2005 10:06:34 -0700, "RON" <>
wrote:

>I was at the San Diego zoo this last Thursday the fourth. It was a beautiful
>day with the high of 75 F.
>What I would like to know is how did you manage to shoot through all the
>wire mesh between you and the animals? I was using the 20D with the kit lens
>18-55 MM.
>I felt for many of the people with P&S cameras as the auto focus most likely
>was on the mesh fence and not the animal.
>I am a member of the zoo and will be going back many times. Just want to get
>another lens. Thinking of the 17-85 IS .
>I like the wide shots and then I can crop in PS.
>
I take a lot of zoo photos, and have that same problem.
Some tips that help me: get as close to the mesh/wires as possible;
use as small an aperture as possible (for shortest DOF); try to shoot
the animals with as much distance between them and the wires as
possible; don't shoot wide, move in using zoom. A longer lens than the
kit lens helps a lot, too.
If all comes together right, the mesh/wires all but disappear.

--
Bill Funk
replace "g" with "a"
funktionality.blogspot.com

"RON" <> wrote:

> I was at the San Diego zoo this last Thursday the fourth. It was a
> beautiful day with the high of 75 F.
> What I would like to know is how did you manage to shoot through all
> the wire mesh between you and the animals? I was using the 20D with
> the kit lens 18-55 MM.
> I felt for many of the people with P&S cameras as the auto focus most
> likely was on the mesh fence and not the animal.
> I am a member of the zoo and will be going back many times. Just want
> to get another lens. Thinking of the 17-85 IS .
> I like the wide shots and then I can crop in PS.
>
>
>

P&S cameras have a huge advantage when shooting through chain link and
other wire fences as the diameter of the lens is smaller than the spaces in
the fence while DSLR lenses are almost always larger.

Bill Funk wrote:
> ...
> I take a lot of zoo photos, and have that same problem.
> Some tips that help me: get as close to the mesh/wires as possible;
> use as small an aperture as possible (for shortest DOF); try to shoot
> the animals with as much distance between them and the wires as
> possible; don't shoot wide, move in using zoom. A longer lens than the
> kit lens helps a lot, too.
> If all comes together right, the mesh/wires all but disappear.

Bill,

Didn't you mean to say as _large_ an aperture as possible for
shortest depth of field? Smaller apertures increase depth of
field and are more likely to bring the wire mesh into focus.

Longer focal lengths will also help shorten DOF.

I suppose the technique of using short depth of field is the
best we've got. But there will be some degradation of the
image similar to what happens with dirt on the lens. The dirt
is out of focus and can't be seen, but it contributes to
de-focusing and scattering light from the subject - blurring
the image.

Alan

Bubbabob wrote:
> ...
> P&S cameras have a huge advantage when shooting through chain link and
> other wire fences as the diameter of the lens is smaller than the spaces in
> the fence while DSLR lenses are almost always larger.
....

That's an interesting point. The DSLR user can get a small aperture
by stopping down the lens, but he can't squeeze the whole lens
barrel through the mesh.

Just make sure the gorilla on the other side doesn't take a whack
at that P&S you've squeezed through the mesh

Alan

Bubbabob wrote:
> "RON" <> wrote:
>
>> I was at the San Diego zoo this last Thursday the fourth. It was a
>> beautiful day with the high of 75 F.
>> What I would like to know is how did you manage to shoot through all
>> the wire mesh between you and the animals? I was using the 20D with
>> the kit lens 18-55 MM.
>> I felt for many of the people with P&S cameras as the auto focus most
>> likely was on the mesh fence and not the animal.
>> I am a member of the zoo and will be going back many times. Just want
>> to get another lens. Thinking of the 17-85 IS .
>> I like the wide shots and then I can crop in PS.
>>
>>
>>
>
> P&S cameras have a huge advantage when shooting through chain link and
> other wire fences as the diameter of the lens is smaller than the
> spaces in the fence while DSLR lenses are almost always larger.

No kidding - my 'Bigma' is just ~never~ gonna fit through a chainlink
fence at the local airfield, dangnabit.

Where the 'eck is Scotty with that bloody transparent aluminum? =^{

RON wrote:
> I was at the San Diego zoo this last Thursday the fourth. It was a beautiful
> day with the high of 75 F.
> What I would like to know is how did you manage to shoot through all the
> wire mesh between you and the animals? I was using the 20D with the kit lens
> 18-55 MM.
> I felt for many of the people with P&S cameras as the auto focus most likely
> was on the mesh fence and not the animal.
> I am a member of the zoo and will be going back many times. Just want to get
> another lens. Thinking of the 17-85 IS .
> I like the wide shots and then I can crop in PS.
>
>
Hi,

I was at the S.D. zoo in June and got some decent pictures of tigers,
etc., with no wire mesh fences in my way.
If you must shoot through wire mesh or glass, and think that the
autofocus might focus on the mesh or glass instead of on the animal,
here is a way out. Aim the camera at another object about the same
distance as the animal, push halfway down on the shutter release to lock
in the focus, then aim the camera at the animal and push the shutter
release all the way down. It usually works well.
Regards,

Mort

Go to a zoo that is better set up and doesn't rely so much on "wire cages".

regards
Don
"Alan Meyer" <> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
> Bill Funk wrote:
>> ...
>> I take a lot of zoo photos, and have that same problem.
>> Some tips that help me: get as close to the mesh/wires as possible;
>> use as small an aperture as possible (for shortest DOF); try to shoot
>> the animals with as much distance between them and the wires as
>> possible; don't shoot wide, move in using zoom. A longer lens than the
>> kit lens helps a lot, too.
>> If all comes together right, the mesh/wires all but disappear.
>
> Bill,
>
> Didn't you mean to say as _large_ an aperture as possible for
> shortest depth of field? Smaller apertures increase depth of
> field and are more likely to bring the wire mesh into focus.
>
> Longer focal lengths will also help shorten DOF.
>
> I suppose the technique of using short depth of field is the
> best we've got. But there will be some degradation of the
> image similar to what happens with dirt on the lens. The dirt
> is out of focus and can't be seen, but it contributes to
> de-focusing and scattering light from the subject - blurring
> the image.
>
> Alan
>

On 7 Aug 2005 12:31:03 -0700, "Alan Meyer" <> wrote:

>Bill Funk wrote:
>> ...
>> I take a lot of zoo photos, and have that same problem.
>> Some tips that help me: get as close to the mesh/wires as possible;
>> use as small an aperture as possible (for shortest DOF); try to shoot
>> the animals with as much distance between them and the wires as
>> possible; don't shoot wide, move in using zoom. A longer lens than the
>> kit lens helps a lot, too.
>> If all comes together right, the mesh/wires all but disappear.
>
>Bill,
>
>Didn't you mean to say as _large_ an aperture as possible for
>shortest depth of field? Smaller apertures increase depth of
>field and are more likely to bring the wire mesh into focus.

Yes I did.
Congratulations! You passed the test!
>
>Longer focal lengths will also help shorten DOF.
>
>I suppose the technique of using short depth of field is the
>best we've got. But there will be some degradation of the
>image similar to what happens with dirt on the lens. The dirt
>is out of focus and can't be seen, but it contributes to
>de-focusing and scattering light from the subject - blurring
>the image.

True, but we can't always have perfection. Sometimes we take the
pictures as we can. :-/
>
> Alan

--
Bill Funk
replace "g" with "a"
funktionality.blogspot.com