This was my first attempt at animal photography, it was very challenging, especially at a crowded zoo during school holidays. But hey, a free ticket is a free ticket. At the time, I felt the need to connect with my spirit animal, the rhinoceros; thick-skinned, and fearlessly charging through life.
This was my first time visiting the zoo during school holidays. The experience I was accustomed to was a quiet, meditative one. Not so during school holidays, I felt sorry for the animals. Both parents and children were loud and obnoxious, screaming, and banging on the glass. Dreadful.
The staff, at least, were all lovely.
Thankfully, people would get bored with each animal quickly and move onto to inflict themselves on the next. Meanwhile, I sat with the rhino and tiger for hours waiting for them, observing them, getting to know them.
The rhinos wanted to spend most of their time with their backs to the humans (don’t blame them), and marking their territory. The tiger was extremely challenging to shoot. Although he was an old fella and a long-time feature of the zoo, he was so elusive, I had never actually laid eyes on him. I almost believed the tiger enclosure was empty. But after waiting a while he emerged and began pacing. The windows were all covered with decals of trees to give him some privacy. So I was shooting through that and trying to get past the crowd that would spontaneously appear every time he did.
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