Zoo photography.

Talking about animals, that is something that I would like to discuss. Of course, I am always up for discussing animals.

God, I love animals. Always have, always will. And still, I consider it a curse sometimes. Animals come with so many emotions, so much love, so much at stake, so much to lose. I really do think that having animals as your biggest passion is the worst, because you can never just take a break or let things go. Emotionally, you are connected forever and it can be completely exhausting at times. At the same time though, it is the best. I wouldn't have loved my cat unconditionally for 13 years, ridden horses for 15 years, or for that matter educated myself to become an ethologist during the last 4 years if it all wasn't worth it in the end.

This is why we do it
This is worth the pain
This is why we fall down
And get back up again
This is where the heart lies
This is from above
Love is this, this is love
Love is why we do it
Love is worth the pain
Love is why we fall down
And get back up again
Love is where the heart lies
Love is from above
Love is this, this is love

This = Love, The Script

So, it was always natural for me to start photographing animals. And since I live in Sweden there weren't that many wild animals up for modelling (yeah, I've had herds of moose on my porch during my childhood, but for some reason they weren't always visiting to have their picture taken), which is why I turned to zoos. Photographing at zoos is a bit controversial in some forums, I've noticed. I can't for my life understand why. Zoos are perfect! The role of zoos and their existence is a different discussion, what I mean is that they are perfect for practising animal photography.

If you are like I was, a 15 year old kid who wants nothing more than to photograph beautiful animals, I see no reason not to visit the zoo where they are offered right before your eyes. It was not like I could just grab all my savings and travel around the world, so I visited zoos. Many times. I spent hours there each time, both because I just couldn't stop staring at the animals and because photography became really darn fun.

As I said before, some of my best animal pictures are photographed at zoos and I really cherish the opportunity to bring your camera there with free access to the animals. I see nothing wrong with it, even though I would never claim that my pictures show wild animals. It's captive animals in the pictures, of course, and for some people that might make them not as good. I don't spend much time thinking about that. It's still live animals and they are still good pictures. And zoo visits have basically become the very best thing I know, nowadays. That is what matters to me.

At least one can't argue against the nice looking backgrounds and good light, right? Joking aside, that is often a huge problem with zoo settings but part of the fun is to try and overcome those difficulties. Below I picked out some pictures with backgrounds and light that I think work just fine. The third one is even photographed through a glass window!