Feb 12
Fixed
With no new snow in a long time now, the landscape is not looking very pretty. The day however was beautiful, so a visit to the zoo was just the right thing to do.
I have talked about the problems I have with my 300mm f4L in zoos. With the animals so close, framing becomes a serious issue because a lot of the time it’s impossible to fit the whole animal in the picture. And so it was on this visit, too, I was frequently cursing when I found that some body part was cut off from my compositions because there just simply wasn’t any real estate to fit it in. I have been toying with the idea of selling the fixed lens and getting a zoom instead, but I decided today that it’s not going to happen. I’m better off with the 300mm lens, for several reasons:
- It’s sharp. Very sharp.
- It’s reasonably light weight.
- It’s f4, as opposed to any zoom lens I can afford which would be f5.6.
- It saves me the trouble of figuring out which would be the best focal length for any given subject, which helps me to concentrate on the composition instead.
- It has a close focusing distance.
- It takes 77mm filters (in those rare occasions when I need a polariser)
For zoo photography, the most interesting points are 3 and 4. 
The large aperture helps me to fade out the fence and it also gives me an extra stop of light, which is important considering how reluctant I am to switch to high ISO. And today as we were checking each others’ pictures, I realised that being limited to one focal length is a blessing for me. I mean, yes, there’s a number of shots I missed because I couldn’t fit the animal in the frame. But I like tight compositions, so as soon as the animal is close enough, I can concentrate on the frame fillers. The more background you can eliminate, the better. 
And when I compare the frame fillers against the missed opportunities caused by the lack of zoom, the frame fillers win.
A zoom lens would require a different kind of discipline from me that I doubt that I have (for example the wolf picture above, I doubt I would’ve chosen this composition if I had had a zoom). I would always be tempted to zoom out to fit more of the animal in the picture, when in reality I should be doing exactly the opposite. And all the while zooming out, I would still try to simplify the composition to avoid distractions, but of course the further you zoom out the more complicated it gets. I can curse at those cut-off body parts, but almost all of my all-time favourite zoo pictures are frame fillers which is all the reason I need to stick to my fixed lens!
2 comments
I can see your point with fixed lens, but…I would just find such too limiting.
The wolverine here is my favorite, just because the wolf did not fit in (still very nice portrait, though!)
I think you’re right. Zoo photography is for filling frames. There is no natural environment to incorporate in the picture anyway.
The owls in Järvzoo is a sad story, they should be set free rather than in those small cages, i think. Their plumage looked rather dull when I saw them, due to the captivity i believe. But nevertheless – it’s a nice close-up of the bird!