Zoo problems

[Ron]

I was at the San Diego zoo this last Thursday the fourth. It was a beautiful
day with the high of 75 F.
What I would like to know is how did you manage to shoot through all the
wire mesh between you and the animals? I was using the 20D with the kit lens
18-55 MM.
I felt for many of the people with P&S cameras as the auto focus most likely
was on the mesh fence and not the animal.
I am a member of the zoo and will be going back many times. Just want to get
another lens. Thinking of the 17-85 IS .
I like the wide shots and then I can crop in PS.

[Wilt]

If you're shooting thru bars with a wide enough gap between the bars,
you could force the camera to use a specific focus point, then put that
between the bars at the animal. If you do have a mesh to shoot thru
and would confound even a manually chosen focus point, you only can
resort to manual focus.

[Bill]

I take a lot of zoo photos, and have that same problem.
Some tips that help me: get as close to the mesh/wires as possible;
use as small an aperture as possible (for shortest DOF); try to shoot
the animals with as much distance between them and the wires as
possible; don't shoot wide, move in using zoom. A longer lens than the
kit lens helps a lot, too.
If all comes together right, the mesh/wires all but disappear.

[Alan]

I take a lot of zoo photos, and have that same problem.
Some tips that help me: get as close to the mesh/wires as possible;
use as small an aperture as possible (for shortest DOF); try to shoot
the animals with as much distance between them and the wires as
possible; don't shoot wide, move in using zoom. A longer lens than the
kit lens helps a lot, too.
If all comes together right, the mesh/wires all but disappear.

Bill,

Didn't you mean to say as _large_ an aperture as possible for
shortest depth of field? Smaller apertures increase depth of
field and are more likely to bring the wire mesh into focus.

Longer focal lengths will also help shorten DOF.

I suppose the technique of using short depth of field is the
best we've got. But there will be some degradation of the
image similar to what happens with dirt on the lens. The dirt
is out of focus and can't be seen, but it contributes to
de-focusing and scattering light from the subject - blurring
the image.