At the Safari Park with my 100-400 Mk-ii

[rpcrowe]

I fully expected that my EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II lens would be great for standard animal shots at either the zoo or the Safari Park and I was not disappointed...

The 400mm end let me get head shots even of tall guys like this giraffe...


I was also able to get some shots at 266mm from the tram out in the large enclosure...




However I was really happy to get some butterfly shots with my 100-400 Mk-ii, since my Tamron macro had given up the ghost...
1. 176mm 1/100 second f/5.6 ISO 1250


2. 220mm same exposure parameters


3. 400mm 1/200 second f/5.6 ISO 1250

[Mike Buckley]

Really nice set, Richard! You gave the lens a great workout.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[LePetomane]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

[rpcrowe]

Actually, IMO, the quality was a bit better at ISO 320 and lit by a diffused flash...

I was able to shoot at 1/250 second @ f/5.6 for these using the flash

1. 349mm


2. 234mm


3. 400mm

[Mike Buckley]

It's really a matter of preferred style. Those with and without flash are good, though I prefer the look of those without it except that I wouldn't have known the last one involved flash.

[Rainforest]

Lovely Richard. That first butterfly is a perfect match to the flower! What a variety, glad I got to see them.

[rpcrowe]

The butterfly exhibit is wonderful. There are thousands of butterflies all around. They land on your hair, shoulders and camera gear. We are usually let into the enclosure a half hour before it opens to the general public but, that didn't happen on this shoot for some reason and they actually let too many people in at one time. That makes it difficult to shoot. My big complaint was not the people shooting the butterflies but those wanting to get selfies and standing in what would be other people's shots.

I put the butterfly images into my smugmug.com Zoo and Safari Park gallery ( https://rpcrowe.smugmug.com/Animals/...-and/i-XQJvW54 ). While looking at the gallery, I just thought I'd pick out and share five of my all time favorite Zoo and Safari Park pictures.

Here they are not in any specific order:

1.


2.


3.
This reminds me of Donald Trump


4.


5. The lemur's golden eyes are amazing

[RandyRFJP]

All great photos, Richard. I particularly like the ones of the gorilla and lemur.

[Mike Buckley]

It's certainly understandable why the last five are your favorites. We so often try to get just the right look in the eyes including a pleasing catch light. Ironically, that obsession makes the photo of the animal expressing such an obvious feeling of satisfaction with its eyes closed particularly special for me. Is it an orangutan?

[rpcrowe]

It's certainly understandable why the last five are your favorites. We so often try to get just the right look in the eyes including a pleasing catch light. Ironically, that obsession makes the photo of the animal expressing such an obvious feeling of satisfaction with its eyes closed particularly special for me. Is it an orangutan?

Yep, it is a youngish orangutan, Here are a couple of other orangutan images...







and another one of the big gorilla...

[Rita]

What an enjoyable and pleasing set of images Richard. That lens sure gives some nice detail, and of course the skill of the photographer too.