TheShed

I once had the misfortune to visit Dubai Zoo and as an animal lover it was a horrible experience. Has anyone been to EPZ? Are the animals treated reasonably well with decent enclosures?

I am a very keen photographer and need a fix of wildlife picture taking but cant afford the time to go to Africa until later in the year.

Any advice much appreciated.

Mogs

Al Ain zoo is a lot better, Emirates Park Zoo is better than Dubai zoo but not a patch on Al Ain.

scrubbedexpat141

THis isn't a useful reply by the way.

Dubai Zoo - Agree, utterly soul destroying.
Emirates Park - Never been or heard of, but might go.
Al Ain Zoo - Went the weekend just gone, great Zoo, got there early and no crowds for a few hours. Some great animals to see. Bit annoying that all the glass you look through for things like the Gorilla (for example) is massively reflective when trying to take snaps. Still, got some blinders.
Sharjah Wildlife Park - Alright, but not mega. There's a weird indoor birds leisure centre type thing to walk through which is just odd.

Al Ain zoo requires a longer lens than my standard 18-55mm for some of the animals (Rhino / Giraffe)....although if you try and feed the 'raffes at the designated bit you might get luckier than us with some close up shots, the bastards didn't want any carrots that day. Still funny to see a dishdash bloke smashing a bell of the metal railings and shouting for 'Snarfy' to come over.

If you got to EPZ, let me know how good it is, I love zoos.

TheShed

May well go this weekend Scamp. Not an issue on the focal length as I use pretty pro gear. Just realised that in all my time here, I never went to Al Ain either.

Will let you know how it goes.

scrubbedexpat141

Light years ahead of me then mate. I looked in Al Ain Mall at the weekend (there was a Canon shop) at the 70-200mm (I think) and it was nearly 3,000 dibs.

Got to save my pocket money for that.

Meow

Al Ain zoo is okay, but it's not good enough. I have some great shots from there though, including one of a giraffe that has reproduced a few times.

I have some decent shots from a couple of trips to Al Maha, mainly oryx and gazelle, but the scenery is stunning and it's a lot closer than Africa. Also need to process some camel ones I took recently. The closeup head shots are amusing.

scrubbedexpat141

I've got a pic from this weekend of the Gorilla and I looking at each other through the glass.

I can only just work out who's who.

TheShed

That would have been the f4 model. Take a look at the 70-200 f2.8 mkII As near as dammit 10k. Its a great lens though and lives on my 5D3 most of the time. :-)

scrubbedexpat141

What makes it 3x better?

TheShed

Double the light input (saves you using flash in darker situations). Image Stabilization and much higher quality glass elements. Dont get me wrong, the F4 is a fine lens, its just HOW fine you want it to be.

scrubbedexpat141

I see, interesting. (I asked because I don't know, so thanks).

I quite enjoy pretending to be good at photography at the moment, I take shots whilst lay down and things like that. You know, look like I'm smashing out some mega pics but really taking about 14 whilst playing with the settings on manual trying to work out what's what. It's definitely more fun that way.

Meow

Some half decent equipment helps, but it's who is behind the lens that really makes the difference. I just have a basic Cannon SLR and also use a 55-250 lens and can take decent photos with that. I am just not interested in the technicalities, but am very aware of what might make an interesting photo, where the light is etc.

I have met people with super fancy equipment who take rubbish photos and the opposite too.

scrubbedexpat141

Agree completely.

I just enjoy taking photos. I've got the Canon Eos 600d with the 18-55mm lens. I'm going to buy a bigger one when I get some bonus and will take both with me everywhere.

I've got some awesome photos and some bog standard ones, but the way I look at it is that I'm the only one looking at them, maybe friends and family too. So they don't all need to be mega pro or awesome pics, it can be a standard on with average lighting or setting and still be amazing if it's got me and Dad in it.

mentalist

Back to the original topic, yes I've been twice and my 9yo daughter loves it. As you may be aware, there is a hotel connected to the zoo, so you can eat your breakfast in the company of giraffes and zebras. The zoo is well worth the Dhs25 entrance fee and only 5 minutes off the Dubai-AD highway. Plenty of baby animals when we last went, but it's getting hotter so hurry.

jam25mack

Pro picture taking folk are the same. Knowledge helps but the more you take the better chance you have got of taking a belter!

I took this in the mountain in RAK a few weeks ago on a Sony Digital thats about 5yrs old.