Handler with tiger, note the meat on end of stick

Over the last few Months I have been really busy photographing various animals for a forthcoming book to be published by Dorling Kindersley in Autumn 2010.

It has been a demanding, yet very exciting project as very specific images had to be achieved in accordance with the demands of the design and editorial content of the book. So I worked closely with Karen the Managing Art Editor and Kim, the Senior Project Editor.  The idea was to get a ‘virtual tour’ of each animal, which meant photographing key features such as side profile, ears, feet, mouths, fur and eyes to name a few. To do this with wild animals or most zoo animals would be virtually impossible under normal time and budget constraints, and consistency with lighting would be another big issue. So photographing in a studio environment became the ideal option. There are a few specialist animal handlers here in the UK and Europe, but the one that really holds the key animals, is a company based down in the South of England. where they have a very large zoo complex. I had worked with them several years ago on on advertising campaign, so knew exactly what they were  about. The animals were really well looked after, they were in tip top condition and in excellent living conditions. Photographing  with a specialist handlers helps considerably in getting the images you require. Thus, with  Dorling Kindersley  we felt this was the way to work and worked with access to one animal per day, to get the required pictures for the book

Preparation is the key to an animal shoot like this. As these are dangerous animals, they have to be contained within a large caged area, which meant photographing from outside the cage through a special hatch. All the lighting had to be put inside the cage prior to the photography, and set up exactly as required, as it would be impossible to go in later and adjust it with the tiger inside! I really wanted to bring out the textures and colour of the animals fur and at the same time  the sheen. Lighting was with a large beauty dish with a honeycomb high from the left hand side and fill was created by two heads with spill kills bouncing off a large reflector just right of centre from the camera. Because some of  these pictures would probably be cut out, a large white background roll was used and lit separately. As the lighting from the key was quite directional, we marked off an area in which the Tiger would have to stay, so the lighting would stay effective. Something else to consider was  ’freezing’ the movement of the animal, as we needed to get various shots including it roaring. Therefore, a fast flash duration was required. I opted for around 15000th of a second. The problem with using really short flash durations is the lower output of the flash. I managed around f14 at 100 ISO on a 3k pack for the key light. I had two cameras on hand, both linked separately to my Apple laptops running Capture One Pro. This is the way I like to work, seeing the images on a large enough display almost instantly, for me this takes away a lot of pressure, seeing the images so quickly and being able to make quick decisions, if you have the shot in ‘the bag’ or not. My main camera was my Phase One Camera with a P30 back and a 75-150 digital zoom  which would be used for overall pictures of the tiger. For real close ups I used a Canon EOS1DS mk2 with a 70 -200 and a x2 lens extender. With the Phase One I simply could not get close enough and  the autfoocus  would not work that well under subdued lighting conditions. Every camera system has its pro’s and cons, one has to use whatever is suitable for the job. Set up time was around 4 hours, I used the Art Director for the lighting test, and then we were ready to go. The animal studio is designed in a way that all the animals can be accessed by opening various caged doors and they can be led into the main studio cage. One has to understand that the tiger used for this photography was only trained to a certain point, it  could be touched or  by its handlers. The owner and  his assistant went into the main cage both carrying long sticks and bags containing food. The sticks are not used for touching or prodding the tiger but as a method of  giving food for reward, keeping the tiger at arms length and for a means of holding the tiger’’s attention! Everyone was prepared and the trainers asked everyone to be quiet, ready for the animal to be brought in. There was lots of rattling of cages and much roaring with a little bit of trepidation on my part and then suddenly the tiger came running into the main studio cage

to be continued…..

Been very busy over the last couple of weeks working on this Animal book. Last week involved photographing crocodiles, here in the UK, a private collector, who has more types of crcodiles than any zoo or collector. It was certainly challenging, photographing some of his crocs in the conservatory! Some of them, like the  Black Caiman were far too big and dangerous to work under controlled lighting, so we opted for a Cuban Crocodile. This was about 4 feet long and due to its very aggressive nature had its mouth taped shut. This does not cause any stress tho the animal,  towards the end of the photography session it was much calmer and  the tape was removed and I managed to obtain few pictures with its mouth open! Fantastic animal to photograph, beautiful coloration and amazing to see close up. Shaun the crocodile man really knew his stuff .

Lighting was limited by the size and height of the conservatory, basically a large softbox on a boom arm was above the animal, small strip light for fill on the right hand side and a large focussing spot from the left as the key light.

[View with PicLens]

]]> http://garyophoto.com/archives/196/feed 0 http://garyophoto.com/archives/178 http://garyophoto.com/archives/178#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:18:47 +0000 Gary Ombler http://garyophoto.com/?p=178 Photography of the Rhino was quite exciting. A young White Rhino [ Not a Black Rhino] as previously stated. One could get quite close to this Rhino and  he was quite happy to be stroked! Could not use flash though, as I found out from the Keeper that Rhinos have very poor vision and the flash could really send him wild! The main problem was the good old British weather, it never rained but it was so overcast and trying to photograph a young, restless and boisterous Rhino required a fairly fast shutter speed. Shots were mixed up with my Canon and Mamiya 645 AFD with a P30 back. The Phase One impressed me at the  800 ISO rating, the files were virtually noiseless. Even at that ISO, I was only managing 125th Sec at f10, it really was a dull day. Thought I would show what kind of quality the Phase One P30 was producing and let the reader draw there own conclusions.

Phase One P30 60th Sec F10 800 ISO

Crop from above shot

Canon 65mm macro at x4 magnification, daylight f16 25 secs ISO 640

Photographed a Ladybird for the cover of a small field guide of British Insects. The intention was to get a nice overhead shot of the Ladybird. The insect was quite shiny so I used a honeycomb as the main light, so to keep the highlight quite small. A reflector was used on the opposite side as fill in. Because I wanted no shadows, I put the insect on glass and lit a white board underneath the glass, but far enough away as to not light the subject.

Depth of field is a problem and to help keep focus I needed to keep the insect quite still. Putting it in the fridge for a while, seems to make insects quite ’sleepy’. So after a short period, I took it out of the fridge and was able to place it underneath the lens. The trick now was to photograph it after it started to ‘wake  up,’  and just enough for it  to start to move, so I could see all its legs. A bit hit or miss, but eventually I got what I wanted.

The picture above was not the one I intended, for when the insect woke up completely and became very active, the wings came out and it started to beat them rapidly. I took a quick ’snap’ and the result was really interesting, I really like the symmetry and the blur at the tip of the wings. The wings were beating so quickly,  that a relatively fast flash duration could not freeze the motion. After the picture was taken, the ladybird flew off the set and found freedom again!