Even though nature photography is our thing, Peter and I are continuing to practice our wildlife photography.  I’m a believer in transference, what you learn in one discipline helps you be better in others.  We were at the zoo recently, and as usual in moments of dearth, I went to the extreme of my zoom lens to try to see the world differently.

Seeing patterns at the zoo is challenging.  The animals are moving, your lens may not be long enough, the light is changing, and the random person’s arm with their cell phone at the end manages to find its way into your frame.  To be honest, patterns truly emerge for me when I am working in post.  As I set my white and black points, bump the contrast, and work with the color, and then the patterns become clearer.  These photos were taken in infrared, and I ended up stripping out most of the color – I thought the contrast between light and dark accentuated the patterns better.