Kirkleatham Owl centre

Kirkleatham Owl centre | Photography | Ant Smith

The centre has been open for 33 years and we (Chris and I) have only just thought on to visit it!

I've never liked the concept of zoos. The education and conservation arguments have always seemed a little thin; especially when stacked up against the abject misery of a caged life. I remember once reading a quote (although I don't remember the quote) from a senior keeper at ZSL which convinced me the whole industry is essentially led by control freaks.

So what on earth am I doing visiting an owl centre?

Getting The Shot...

Here you can see my shooting position for the Snowy Owl photo. Notice first how I get down to the level of the bird, which is always a good idea when shooting any animal. The posture also helps me to establish a very stable base from which to handle the hefty lens. Notice second how this arrangement helps me miss the shot that is cooming down the path! Well, nerly miss it, I did get a nice head and shoulders of a Peacock...

Photo By: Christine (also the main photo for this article)

I suppose there has been a shift in the balance of misery. Out in the real world human(un)kind has made life harder and harder for everything - whilst activism has definitely improved welfare of kept animals. Perhaps, for the individual, a zoo life can be better than a 'free' life...

No, I don't really believe that. I still think zoos are a bad idea; just, maybe, not as bad as they were back in the 70's when I was growing up.

Visiting zoos definitely conflicts my personal ethics. So I try, at the very least, to exercise some judgement. We were initially suprised at the entrance fee (£3.50), which at least made us think there ain't a lot of profiteering going on - this clearly isn't just a menagerie for the entertainment of the rich.

Wondering around we were impressed by the effort that had gone in to landscaping each of the enclosures. In fact it made us reflect on our experience at Thorpe Perrow, where the enclosures were much more utilitarian.

I did feel there was a healthy bond between the birds and the keepers at Thorpe Perrow; I honestly couldn't condemn the place at all having seen the interactions between them.

That said, they can certainly learn from Kirkleatham - who, as it happens, are full members of BIAZA (The British & Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums).

I think its far too simplistic to say 'zoos are bad, you must not visit them'. In fact I think it is discriminatory to say that since the effect is only the very affluent can then afford to see these creatures.

I do feel that some of the enclosures are quite small for the animals, and I am disquietened by just how many they have... but then objectively they are not profiteering and they are signed up to the most stringent controlling body available.

In balance I think I will return to Kirkleatham Owl centre, but I would be less happy to patronise Thorpe Perrow any further than I already have (unless and until they join BIAZA).

So at least I have boundaries!

I also think the images I have brought away with me reflect all of my thoughts above. Some of the shots are (ahem) proper stunning! They can serve to help reduce antipathy, help people to love the insane variety of life. Some of the pictures also depict caged life without deceit or romanticism - I think.

Anyway, here's my shots from the day

African Barn Owl Displays Black Crowned Crane Black Crowned Crane 2 Bluebird Bluebird Female Blue Winged Kookaburra Burrowing Owl Caged 2 Emu King Vulture Long Eared Owl Love Bird Love Birds Peacock Headandshoulders Snowy Owl Striated Caracara Ural Owl White Peacock Tail Yellow Crested Cockatoo

Galleries

(click images to see larger versions

African Barn Owl Displays

Black Crowned Crane

Black Crowned Crane 2

Bluebird

Bluebird Female

Blue Winged Kookaburra

Burrowing Owl

Caged 2

Emu

King Vulture

Long Eared Owl

Love Bird

Love Birds

Peacock Headandshoulders

Snowy Owl

Striated Caracara

Ural Owl

White Peacock Tail

Yellow Crested Cockatoo

Shooting Notes

Most of these were shot at around 450mm on my 200-500mm zoom. I like to avoid the far extreme of the zoom range to ensure best possible image quality. It's an f/5.6 lens so I stop it down to f/8, again for best image quality. I might go to f/11 if there's 2 birds in frame, to get the extra depth of field but mostly it just isn't light enough for that.

With the long lens I try to keep the exposure time at or above 1/1000th of a second. It's a very heavy lens and even with Vibration Reduction getting a steady shot is hard, really hard. I definitely prioritise fast shuter speed over low ISO. The enclosures can be quite dark so these are mostly shot at ISO 1600, and few of them higher than that (upto ISO 6400).

The camera's normal (not extended) range goes up to ISO 256,000 but even though that's 'normal' range, it's too noisy for me. I do use (so called) AI filters for noise removal, they are very effective. I don't worry too much about 'is it still real' as I think all photography is subjective representation. If it looks like your memory of what you saw that's good enough.

A lot of the birds tend to hangout further back in the enclosures (thus why a long lens is needed) which helps as then you can get up good and close to the bars or mesh of the enclosure and it pretty much disappears. It gets a bit tricksy to ensure the autofocus point doesn't lock on to the mesh, especially weilding a hefty lens, but it's very doable.

I usually take about half a dozen shots of each subject. First couple pretty much to check focus, composition and exposure. The remainder either go off by accident(!) or the bird moves just as you press the shutter. During these exposures I'm more watching the bird's behaviour than trying to get a precise shot, so when I am ready I kind of know when I'm going to get a good expression. Nearly half of these shots have the bird looking directly at me which improves the image immensly. It isn't too hard to achieve that either, especially with a big lens that they don't really trust and will keep a weather eye on.

Most of these images won't do well in competitions because it is quite obvious that they are captive. I've seen 'judges' commend images because they 'have a green background' - like so we can pretend they're wild subjects. Worth bearing in mind how shallow competition judging can be, but personally I prefer to shoot what I see...

Modern photography is all about high definition, bright colours, strong contrast (again, bear in mind if shooting for competitions!) and that all works for me when it comes to animal and macro work. I use a variety of sharpening tools. Raw sharpening often set quite high after Denoise; Perhaps a dose of micro-contrast structural sharpening. Output sharpening. Sometimes you can see I've pushed it a tad far and there will be fine speckles in places. So watch out for that. With most adjustments I make settings until I like the result, then I dial them back to 2/3rds or a half - just to be sure I don't end up with an over-processed look.

Finally, the most successful images here were shot on my 105mm macro lens, not the long telephoto. I couldn't afford the £17k for a top end long telephoto but I could afford the £700 for a top end 105mm lens. Ultimately the single most important thing in capturing high quality images is the glass - everything else is secondary.

Photography