16 September 2012

Nikon workshop and zoological adventure


A couple of months ago I bought myself a Nikon D5100 digital SLR camera, when I bought it, it came with an offer to go on a one day workshop at a zoo in the Netherlands. Yesterday I went on said workshop at Burgers Zoo in Arnhem.

The workshop was basic, and we started out with being explained how the camera works, and how it is different from your regular digital compact cameras, and after an explanation of all the main features (aperture, shutter speed and ISO) we did some practical work.

There's lots of photos ahead, so there's more after the jump, such as elephants, meerkats and gorillas hoarding red peppers.


First we worked with the aperture. Having the aperture as closed as possible created photos where the background remains in focus.


However, opening the aperture as wide as possible created the kind of photo below, where the foreground stays crisp but the background is soft.


After that we worked with shutter speed. Here our challenge was to create a sharp photo of the meerkats and warthogs, even though they were moving around a lot.



Our final task was to take photos of a dark cave, by upping the sensitivity of the camera's sensor to light and still have a crisp photo. 


Ofcourse, this can create artifacts in the photo, so then we were encouraged to try using the flash.


After this we disbanded, and I had the rest of the day in the zoo to myself.





When I got to the gorillas the keepers had just finished putting out food and they were let out of their inside enclosure.



Some gorillas just couldn't get enough of the peppers.










Can you spot the little chick?





I took over 300 photos yesterday, but these are just some of the best.

2 comments:

  1. I love the water ripples! Caves are so cool to be in; there are many in our area, even random ones on local properties. That's pretty awesome that your camera came with an offer to have a little class at a zoo! It sounds like a fun time!

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  2. Cute, I love penguins! Great photos :-)

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