Shooting through mesh

There are usually barriers between animals and a zoo visitor, and I'm learning to handle them. Photographic success depends partly on the distance between the camera and the fence or mesh and the distance between the fence and the animal.

I've read that it helps if the camera is close to the fence. Then the camera can more easily focus beyond the fence and on the animal. It's often not possible to get close to the fence, but sometimes the photo works out anyway.

Here, the fence is 3-4 feet away from the path I was standing on, and a strand of fence wire is visible as a light horizontal blur against the bison's dark nose and hair. The bison was 20 feet or more behind the fence.

A bison lounges 20 feet behind a wire fence (Columbus Zoo)

Here, I was the same distance from the fence, but the bison was close to it. With little distance between the fence and bison, the camera could not make the fence disappear. 

Bison close to a wire fence (Columbus Zoo)

With a fence like this one, it's possible to shoot between the wires and leave them out of the shot altogether. I almost did that with this shot.

Bison with a fence wire in the foreground (Columbus Zoo)

Sunlight was shining brightly on a snow leopard's mesh, so I played artiste and tried to use it as a picture frame.

This one would be better with more of Shishir's head, and possibly his ear, in the diamond. It still wouldn't be a great picture because his head is turned slightly away.

Snow leopard through shiny mesh (Toledo Zoo)

This one is better because the cat's mouth is open, but his eye is obscured. Not a particularly good shot.

Shishir, a male snow leopard (Toledo Zoo)

Here's an example of disappearing mesh. I posted a full Bornean crested fireback a while ago; here's a close-up.

Bornean crested fireback (Toledo Zoo)

This Meyer's parrot, about six inches long, is in the same enclosure as the fireback, and it's on the mesh at the front. (The bird's body looks out-of-focus to me, and manual focus might have been a better choice. It's hard to say with the mesh in the way.)

The mesh was a couple feet away from me, and the fireback was a good six feet beyond it. The mesh must have had some effect on the fireback photo, but I don't see it.