Photography Days

S

stephend

Well-Known Member
Hi There all
Just wondering if anyone in the United Kingdom know of any zoo's that do photography days. lots of zoo's do a thing so you can pay & become a keeper for the day. I think it would be great if photographers could pay for a day at their favourite zoo to maybe get in earlier to get those first up shots or be able to shadow a keeper to get that little closer or behind the scenes to get those extra special shots.
please let me know, would be really interested:)
 
When I was at Port Lympne in summer 2007 I bumped into one of these parties of photographers several times. They got prime positions for the bachelor gorilla's scatter feed - on the keeper's side of the barrier. Likewise they had the bamboo shoots placed exactly where they wanted them for the red panda's late afternoon feed. If they had similar treatment for some of the other exhibits, they would have had an excellent day.
On the other hand they seemed to have a fairly inflexible schedule, so I doubted if I would have been able to spend time working the sifaka or the gentle lemurs if I were in the party - but if there was a photogenic baby animal somewhere, I'm sure they would have made a real effort to allow the party to shoot it.
My other thoughts are that the day is expensive, and what happens if it rains?

Alan
 
Hi There, In the summer of 2007 I took part in 3 of these photography safari's through a company called www.photographersonsafari.com. The ones I did were Port Lympne, Cat Survival Trust, and Santago Rare Leopards Project. I'd highly reccomend this to anyone interested. Its a great experience, and you get some absolutely fantastic photos. The day I was at Port Lympne the weather was somewhat iffy and there was a short period of rain, however you still are able to take really good photos as long as it isn't a torrential downpour. We photographed the gorillas, rhino, red panda, red river hogs, giraffe, water buffalo, various sorts of monkeys and many of the hoofstock in the park. Here's a link to see some of the photos I took on the day Adam Long's Photos - Eurotrip 2007 | Facebook. If you get a chance to go to Santago I really encourage you, its an amazing place and you'll get to spend some quality time with some very rare animals. I was there from 12pm until about 7pm and took 900 photos, many of which were of the elusive clouded leopards who gradually get used to you throughout the day. Although its expensive (for me about $1000 CDN for all 3 days) it is an awesome experience and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
 
Re Santango - unfortunately the owner Peter James died a while back . Not certain if all the collection has been dispersed now . Anyone know what happened ?
 
The photography days are still being offered at Santago this year, and in fact since I was there two years ago they have also acquired an ocelot. They may have gotten rid of some of their black panther cubs though in an order to cut some of the costs. Unfortunately, the cost of insurance for the place is extreme as it is in a somewhat residential area and Peter's widdow is having trouble keeping up with the cost of insurance and maintaining the collection so she may be forced to disperse the animals to other collections later this year/early next year.
 
Hi Stephend

Just to let you know that we are in the process of securing other locations for our workshops so please keep checking back incase it is something that would be of interest to you.
 
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