This weekend we made a trip to Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent primarily as a birthday treat for my wife's niece but I also took my camera gear with me in the hope of getting some new shots of the animals. So I took along my Canon EOS 30D and my Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L USM along with my Canon 2x Teleconverter and a monopod to see what I could get.

I had visited Howletts previously along with their sister zoo, Port Lympne so knew what to expect before I got there and knew that it was going to be a challenge to get many decent shots due to the types of cage and enclosure that Howletts use.

Howletts make a big point of stating that the welfare of their animals comes first and of course this is to be applauded and I wouldn't want it any other way, particularly as I remember visiting other zoo's in the past where the welfare of the animals most definitely came a distant second to the 'pleasure' of the visitors which left me feeling sickened in all honesty. When it comes to photography though, this policy does mean that often you simply can't get good clear shots of the animals which is a bit of a shame.

The biggest problem that faces a photographer is the cages. All zoo's have to have a 'dead zone' which is a gap between the cage and a secondary fence or barrier so that members of the public, nor the animals, can put their fingers through the fence for safety reasons. At some zoo's this is not too much of a problem because you can still use a large aperture such as f/2.8 or f/4 to knock the fence so far out of focus that it becomes invisible. However this is only possible if the wire used in the fence or cage is relatively thin and non reflective. Unfortunately the wire used in the fences at Howletts is slightly too thick and although it is generally coloured black it is quite shiny which means that in broad daylight in can become highly reflective making it near impossible to remove from your shots.

The other problem, photographically speaking, is that many of the cages are situated in wooded areas that are quite dark and where the cages are several meters away from the path. It is therefore utterly impossible to photograph any of the animals in these areas if you want to remove all signs of captivity. Clearly the reason for putting the cages in this area is because it suits the animals in that it more closely replicates their natural habitat and some of the animals in these areas are particulary shy and would not like members of the public being too close to them and so this is not a complaint and merely an observation from a photographic perspective.

Below are some photos that I did manage to capture, very few are completely free from signs of captivity whilst others have compositions that hint at the restrictions that the cages impose.

Howletts is well worth a visit regardless of whether you want to take photos or not and if you do want to take photos patience, persistence and luck can produce excellent results so to find out more go to the Howletts website