Foot and Mud

The last couple of posts have been images from the wedding I photographed last weekend, and with a few more lined up over the next while I thought I would change tack today and post another shot from Dublin Zoo.  I’m loathe to draw comparisons between photographing a wedding and photographing in a zoo for obvious reasons, but there is one thing in common between both – in my mind at least – and that is the importance of photographing detail.  I posted some detail shots from the wedding a few days ago, and here is a detail shot, of sorts, from the zoo.

What brought this shot to mind was a discussion with a friend of mine yesterday, who is developing a growing interest in photography and is at the point where he wishes to invest in a new lens for his Canon SLR camera.  He asked my opinion on a Sigma lens that he was looking at to replace the kit lens that came with the camera, which is a reasonable thing to want to do if you are looking to get the best from your camera.  I countered however that I would be inclined to look at adding something with a longer focal length to his set of lenses first.  He currently owns the kit lens and a nifty fifty – a lens that everyone should own – and to me, getting a telephoto zoom is the next natural step.

His thought process was that he takes mainly portraits and landscapes, and that a standard zoom is better suited to both. He’s right and wrong – actually a longer lens for portraits (85mm or even 105mm) makes lovely shots, minimal distortion, and can give a nice sense of perspective, but for landscapes having something close to 18mm does certainly help.

My thought process was that until he shoots with a telephoto lens – I don’t mean a 600mm sports photographer job either, just something that goes to perhaps 200mm, which on his crop sensor will be equivalent to 300mm – he won’t know whether or not he’s inclined to use it, and may in fact realise that he’s missing out on a whole world of photography – and especially the world of “details”.

This shot was taken with a 150mm focal length, and allowed me to frame tightly on the animals foot (can you tell what it is yet?  No, it’s not an elephant).  I personally think the photo shows great detail and texture in the skin of the animal (any guesses?), and also the semi-action nature of the shot with the foot leaving the puddle gives me a sense of the coldness and wetness of the environment.  I could have, and did, photograph the entire animal – ok, it’s a rhinocerous – with a standard telephone which allowed me to frame the shot with the animal entirely within the frame.  But it was nice also to use this longer focal length to zone in on an aspect of the animal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this shot held the viewers attention for longer than a shot of the entire animal.  Much as how I had you guessing what animal it was here, you would be doing the same if there was no text to this blog post, whereas a wide angle shot could well have you thinking “oh, it’s another rhino photo” and moving on.

Adding the ability to zoom in tight to your photography bag doesn’t just allow you take the same shot from further back, but allows you to compose different shots, or the same shots in different ways, and in my mind makes the purchase of a lens suited to this the next natural thing to do for any recent SLR owner who is thinking of expanding his or her kit.