This week’s short post shows how I captured some wonderful shots to share during our summer visit to Wellington Zoo. Like every good photographer I was after a unique shot but did I get one? Let me show you my tongue out Tuesday surprise including the camera settings I used.
At the giraffe enclosure I hit the jackpot. Not only did I see a new baby giraffe, which I will share next week, but I captured the funniest shot ever (for me). An absolutely amazing giraffe having a munch of lunch.
Tips for Giraffe Photos
For those using their DSLR, I was using my 55-250 mm zoom lens as I was about four metres (16 feet approx.) away from the Giraffes on a raised platform. I got the cool shot that I know will make everyone laugh on Instagram too (dashkittenphotos) when I schedule it for Tongue Out Tuesday.
One thing you can’t see it which matters for this photograph.Visitors approach the giraffes on a raised walkway which allows them to see the giraffe from the animal’s eye level and get a good look at these wonderful beasts. The raised viewpoint allowed me to get as close as I could, then adjust my zoom lens, take a steadying breath and fire off a handfull of shots.
- Remember that in order to get your shot, you will find you have a lot of ‘almosts’ and ‘not quite’ shots. This happens and you can delete these.
Giraffe Portrait Settings (DSLR)
- ISO 200
- 250 mm lens (121 mm – 2nd photo)
- f8
- 1/120 (320 – 2nd photo)
Find out more about Giraffes on Wikipedia
My Most Useful Canon Lens
I thought you might like to see the dimensions of my Canon DSLR zoom. This is the lens that sits on my camera most of the time (unless I am doing cat closeups) It is taller than my kit DSLR lens (which would come up to about the words Canon in this photo). It does make the camera a bit heavier but the lens can take super sharp shots and is so versatile. I use it a lot for my cat portraits and, alongside my small 50 mm lens, the pair works for me.
Absolutely adorable! Made my day! How fun and exciting to photograph giraffes! xo
Love the photos, Giraffes always make good photos with their tongues out
Wonderful shot!!!!! You should enter it in a contest. You will certainly win!
That tongue reminds me of my one horse’s tongue, Macho. He would lick me from head to toe. Such a sweet boy!
I’m looking forward to the post on the baby giraffe. Apparently, there’s a new foal in the wild horse herd that visits here nearly daily. Well, at least according to the hoove prints there’s a little one in the herd now. I would LOVE to get a great shot of that sweet little pea.
What a cute Giraffey Miss Marjorie! You tooked grate fotoss!
~~~head rubss~~~BellaDharma~~~ an {{{hugss}}} BellaSita Mum
Fantastic giraffe pictures! Wonderful that there’s a way you can view them from an elevated position!
this is a great photo marjorie, it seems as if
you are within a foot of him !! 🙂 ♥♥
As you know, cat lovers love tongue shots – though We never dreamed a giraffe’s tongue could be so huge! It’s a really cute shot.
Definitely an excellent tongue-out shot. It’s lovely to see your work out and about, too.
ERin
That tongue!!! It must be a mile long….
Its like a hand for that giraffe. Nice catch!!
Wow, what a great shot of that giraffe! It’s really interesting how different the Canon lenses look than the Nikon ones.
That is just too darn cute, love those! Thanks for joining Angel Brian’s Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
That is a great shot of the giraffe!