Nocturnal, again

A while back I posted pictures of nocturnal animals at the Columbus Zoo. I took them hand-held, and they weren't very good. For round two, on February 14, I borrowed a tripod, which permitted longer exposures without my trying to hold the camera still. In the first round, exposure times were between 0.25 and 0.125s. This time, exposure times were 1.5s except for two of the frogmouths, which were 1s and 0.67s, and the ISO was 1600. For both rounds I used autoexposure. Next time, I'll try for a lower ISO for less graininess.

I focused manually again because I didn't want to annoy the animals with the focus-assist light, although Glen wouldn't notice; autofocus doesn't work well in low light without the focus-assist light; and the range of the focus-assist light is limited, anyway. I had the wits to use the LCD screen instead of the viewfinder this time, and that helped.

In general, it's important to focus on an animal's eye or the picture won't look quite right. I found that my best pictures are of the frogmouths and binturong because of their large eyes. I focused on the reflected sparkle of light in their eyes and had some success.

Glen, a southern hairy-nosed wombat

binturong

Indian crested porcupine

Matschie's tree kangaroo. This animal was quite active, which I usually love, but I needed stillness because of the long exposures. It cooperated a few times.

Possibly a sleeping posture. The pink parts are its hind feet.

Tawny frogmouth. I took number of photos of frogmouths because there are four of them and they didn't move, except to look at me. These birds can be brown or gray.

Feathertail glider. This picture is awful but I included it because the animal is so interesting. It's basically a flying gecko mouse. It's the size of a mouse, has a membrane that lets it glide, and can climb glass. Standing at the glass-fronted exhibit, which holds seemingly a dozen examples, I couldn't tell you what a feathertail glider looks like. They appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly. It's startling when one lands on the glass with a sort of "splat" sound and then scampers up.

Nocturnal

The Australia and the Islands area at the Columbus Zoo includes a building for nocturnal animals. It's usually so dark that I have a hard time seeing the animals, let alone take a picture, so I usually move right through to the aviary. The other day, though, more lights were on, and I got a few shots. They're lousy, but thought I'd never get any of these animals. All but the wombat photo have been enhanced with software.

binturong

The brush-tailed bettong is about the size of a large rat and moves like a kangaroo.

This is Glen, a southern hairy-nosed wombat. He can be a busy guy.

Halmahera gecko. It was bathed in pretty intense red light, but darkening the photo brought out details. The original photo is below.

I wasn't able to find a reliable web page for this lizard. I have a picture of the zoo's sign with the common and scientific names, but they appear not to match, and I don't know which is correct. I run into this problem more often than I expected.

The tawny frogmouth's feathers look like tree bark. The Toledo Zoo had one, and its tree matched its feathers to the point that it was hard to see even though the room was full of diffuse daylight. Click the link to see examples of this.

The photos are crummy for a couple of reasons. The low light means using a high ISO (light sensitivity), and that leads to graininess in the images. Also, autofocus didn't always work. I have a hard time in general with manual focus because a tiny move of the focus ring makes a big difference. In the low light I sort of guessed when the animal was in focus.