For about six months I have put my animal portraiture aside and focussed on other things. In this time, I haven’t been at a zoo at all. The animal portraits I might have posted on social media were old photographs from my archives. But things have changed now, last month I purchased an annual ticket for one of the local zoos – and I plan to resume taking black & white portraits with renewed vigor. Here are the first results.

New Animal portraits

Birds

I find photographing birds particularly tricky. Not only are there well-known technical difficulties to overcome. The speed of the birds’ movement can make it very hard to capture sharp images while at the same time the fine intricacy of their fathers requires tack sharp focusing for the final photograph to work. But what’s worse for me as a black & white photographer, birds regarding their appearance are very often all about colors, and this doesn’t always translate well to monochrome imagery. In the following photographs, however, I was lucky enough to overcome those problems.

Eagle on a Tree. One of the few cases when keeping the background improves the image.

Bee-eater. I am not entirely sure if this is indeed a bee-eater. But it looks very much like one, so I decided to title it accordingly.

Flamingo. This one has been sitting in my archive for quite a while now because something wasn’t quite right with it. But letting the ground fade to black did the trick.

Steppe Eagle

For more portraits of birds, see my bird portfolio.

Mammals

Every species has its unique kind of grace and beauty. However, there are some which fascinate me more than others, for example, monkeys and apes or zebras. The mongoose and the European bison below are a bit of an exception from the rule.

Zebra. While I usually try to get a headshot or detail shot of the animals, I tried a full portrait here.

Mongoose. These little critters might look cute, but they are fully-fledged predators.

Mandrill. Another species that I find very difficult to do justice to because it is so colorful. What do you think of my solution?

European Bison

There’s more on my Apes & Monkeys and Other Animals portfolios.

Lions

Of all the animals I have photographed, Lions hold a special place in my heart. Eye contact with them is breathtakingly intense and being able to perpetuate this moment in a photograph gives me a thrill that only very few other animals can provide.

Lioness

Young Lioness. The spots on the forehead indicate that this lioness is still relatively young.

Young Male Lion

If you like these, you might want to check out my Big Cats gallery.

More animal portraits

There’s more to come in the future. With my new annual ticket, I plan to go to the zoo quite often to get those elusive portraits that I have in my mind but not yet on my hard drive. I am sure there will be many more shots happening on the side. And I am looking forward to taking them all.