Heading to Fota Wildlife park, any tips??

nicknackgtb

Hi Guys and gals,

Heading to Fota for the weekend now and am bringing the camera with me. just seeing does anyone have any useful tips for shooting down here (Camera Shooting!!!)? I have 30D and Sigma 70-300, nothing special but hoping to be able to get something nice out of it. My first real shoot away from Car photography!!

Cheers Peeps,

Paddy

5uspect

I found Fota a bit disappointing TBH.

That said your best bet are the giraffes and zebras. They're in a big open area with lots of green background. The 300mm will serve you well!

The cheetahs are in small dark enclosures when the cheetah run isn't in use.

dazftw

Wrap up, its going be fairly cold. Myself and the girlfriend were going to go today but decided against walking around in the cold

pixbyjohn

I was there last July, Long lens is a necessity I think. As said in previous post the Giraffes and Zebras are in an open field but sometimes they can be very far away from you. Where the Monkeys and Flamingos and other birds and fowl are you will get very good shots. The Pelicans are usually very obliging by staying very still as you photograph them. The Red Pandas can be great subjects as long as they are not hiding. The Cheetahs are good too but you really need manual focussing so as to eliminate the cagewires, same for the Eagles.
You should be able to get lots of good shots there and don't forget to visit the Fota Gardens which is a short distance from the wildlife park.
Enjoy your visit and as said in previous post, do wrap up.

Thecageyone

Think outside the usual zoo style shots, Foto is more open so it should be easier to make your images feel like they were taken out wild in Africa/Asia. If it's really cold expect a lot of the animals to be in shelter, can be disappointing when that happens. Happened to us in Dublin zoo last month, but we went to Saint Louis zoo [which was free!] twice and got to see most species. If you're staying more than one day, go twice to make sure you get as much in as possible.

nicknackgtb

Yeah I forgot my bloody hat and gloves but have a ski jacket so hopefully shouldn't be too bad!! Were here till Sunday night so hopefully may get out to it again, if not may try the gardens tomorrow and see what it's like! I'll let eye know how I get on anyway! Cheers for the comments

opti76

wait for the cheetah run . i think is 345..its worth it

nicknackgtb

ok so a bit disappointing in the sense that the animals were hardly coming out as it was a bit cold!!!!! As Dazftw said, It was very cold!!!

As this was my first sort of wildlife shooting experience, I tried my best with a few different settings and all the rest and got a few nice ones!! Here's some anyway and would love some cc on this please!
My fav is the one with the black and white duck in the water with the yellow eyes!!

Cheers guys

twowheelsonly

I like the first and last ones.....(And your B&W 'Duck' of course! )
Most of the others have some 'man-made' features in them that I'd like to see cropped or cloned out as they take from the pics IMO.

nicknackgtb

twowheelsonly wrote: »

I like the first and last ones.....(And your B&W 'Duck' of course! )
Most of the others have some 'man-made' features in them that I'd like to see cropped or cloned out as they take from the pics IMO.

I know what you mean, was too cold unfort to be getting into better positions for them! I just didnt crop anything as I wanted to see what people thought of the pics to get the cc, but appreciate the comment. For the black and white duck, i over exposed the shot and thats what seemed to work for that shot!