# Photos from the queens zoo in nyc



## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

we went to the queens zoo which is a small zoo very nicly done on the old worlds fair grounds . shooting wildlife is always tough but my wife and i did manage to get a few nice shots...

great place for the kids..


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## chicagofan00 (Feb 10, 2008)

Great photos as usual. You got some great closeups.


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## PropellerHead (Jan 3, 2002)

That last one was in that Will Smith movie... Uhhh... Men in Black!

I mean.. wasn't it?


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

chicagofan00 said:


> Great photos as usual. You got some great closeups.


i wasnt that close, i used a nikon 70-200mm but most are 50% crops.


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## guest0711 (Feb 4, 2009)

amazing pictures,thanks for posting op.


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## mason (Jun 8, 2006)

What kind of settings?


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

nikon d300 using standard picture control , most spot metered and manual exposure...since a 80-200mm was handheld i used iso 1250 for most of them.


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## Chris90 (Apr 7, 2003)

mountain lion pic is really nice.


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## mathjak107 (Apr 1, 2006)

mathjak107 said:


> nikon d300 using standard picture control , most spot metered and manual exposure...since a 80-200mm was handheld i used iso 1250 for most of them.


before you ask why manual exposure i thought id tell ya'all.

i origionally shot all the animals in matrix metering. it was awful.. i had turquoise blown out skys and the animals were so dark. there was no way everything would fit.

i spot metered on the animals and at zero that left the animals very dark with no detail although still way better then the average scene matrix left me with. .

i was using the nikon d300 with the nikon 80-200mm f2.8 .. i needed more light to brighten the animals but the dilema was i couldnt open the lens any more as the depth of field would have gotten smaller.. i couldnt lower the shutter speed as hand holdingf at 200mm i didnt want to go slower.

i went to manual ,left those settings and cranked the iso to 1250. i kept increasing iso until the detail and the sparkle in their eyes came back.

that worked, i now had the detail back in the animals,... in post processing i took the blown out skys and just removed them.

i just cropped the awful skys out and the exposures on my animals were very good.

its all about exposing for what you want, not across the board.


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## Missmodena310 (Oct 9, 2008)

gorgeous!


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