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…..