Werribee Open Plain Zoo

Had the wonderful pleasure of being on a special training program with Olympus Imaging last week. I was chosen by Olympus to do this training to be a brand ambassador for their cameras and lenses. First day was a trip to Werribee Zoo for a chance to shoot with some of their longer lenses. Olympus really push the quality of the lenses they make all the way from their budget kit lens right through to their Super Pro lenses. I was able to try out both their 50-200 /2.8-3.5 and the big gun 90-250 /2.8, a 180-500 /2.8 on their bodies. This later lens I also used with the 2x tele convertor making a 320-1000 /5.6.

Now if you have never been to Werribee Zoo then I'll explain a little about it. First of all if you just rock up and pay to get in you also get a safari in a big closed bus that drives around the open plain section. This bus follows a route around the zoo and that's it. If the animals are off

somewhere else that's bad luck.

A better option for a photographer is to go on a photographic tour in a open 4x4. These take you to the animals for up close and personal shots.

This first image of the Giraffe, who decided the 4x4 was something to stick its head into was shot with the E30 and 90-250/ 2.8. All images are hand held and show that the IS (image stabilizer) works very well in the camera bodies.

While we were here the animals feeder came along and I was able to hand feed this giraffe. Sort of a nice experience except the slobber left all over my hand. Imagine the Olympus add with the dog that slobbers all over the camera and times that slobber by 10. It was gross.

The problem with the feeder being around is the White Rino's decided to pay us a visit.

This was all well and good and gave me the opportunity to get in super close and shoot images like the one on the left.

Again it's with the 90-250 and 2x convertor. All the images with the 2x on are shot at f8 or f11. The insures maximum sharpness with the convertor and I have to say it is tack sharp with this configuration.

The whole tour took around 1 1/2hrs, much longer than the normal bus tour and we were able to drive right up to every animal.

Of course you just have to get a shot of the Zebra, and again for this image I tried to just shoot the patterns on them. I have many others of the faces but I liked this one better. You recognize straight away what they are without seeing the faces.

After the tour we didn't have a great deal of time but I did manage to snap on shot of the Meerkat.

They were all resting under a tree when I got there and I had the camera and lens pointing down, it's quite heavy the 90-250 lens. One Meerkat decided it would go look out and

scrambled up the rock to the look out post. I lifted the camera and lens and fired off one shot. The Meerkat was then gone. So at 1/320 @ f9 at 950mm I scored a take sharp image of the little guy. IS was definitely helping here.

So next time you visit Melbourne or maybe it will be you first time, book in a visit to Werribee Zoo, make sure you do a photographic tour and these do need to be pre-booked. Sometimes working in a camera store has it's blessings.