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Photographing Exotic Animals
By David Honl
Over the years I've photographed many interesting faces but some of my most rewarding experiences have not been with people, but with exotic animals. In the animal kingdom I've photographed subjects ranging from dairy cows to dolphins. Capturing these animals in a picture can have many rewards, but not without some painstaking research and preparation.
My first example includes a portrait of the legendary actress Tippi Hedren. You'll remember Tippi fending off the crazed feathered creatures in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". I photographed Tippi north of Los Angeles at her home and 140 acre Shambala Preserve, the home to her more than 60 big cats. On this day we used Kirby, the 600 pound Bengal Tiger that stands majestically beside her in this photo. Accompanying Kirby at all times we two big cat trainers, one constantly rewarding him with large chunks of beef. Upon first greeting this magnificent feline one quickly develops an immense amount of respect for its physical power. Every purr from Kirby resonated deep in my chest and under my feet. Just like a house cat, only a couple thousand times more powerful.
The direction for this shot was two-fold. I had to direct both Tippi and the 2 trainers separately, who in turn would direct the tiger. This is the Golden Rule when photographing any exotic animal: all direction must be done through their trainers, as they have the full attention and respect of the animal and are constant contact with it. Once the stage was set and the subjects, camera and lighting was in place it was just a matter of clicking the shutter with each interaction between Tippi and the tiger.
For my second example I hired a chimpanzee for an small ad campaign. Throughout the day, I would have to photograph the animal in a variety of situations, one of them in a 2-shot with a small child. The client originally requested an orangutan, but having worked with orangutans before I knew they were too unpredictable to work with children. Because of this, the client and I agreed on the more docile chimpanzee. This bit of previous knowledge saved me the embarrassment of having to omit the children's shot on the day of the shoot. Research and experience pays!
I constructed the set for the monkey shot in my Los Angeles backyard. The "vine" (actually a 1/2" rope with hot-glued vines and leaves) was suspended from the sturdy branch of a persimmon tree and a 9 foot roll of seamless white background paper was placed about 4 feet behind the vine. After retrieving the chimp from his director's chair we were ready to begin. I asked the trainers to direct him to hold an empty cardboard box while swinging from the vine. He performed flawlessly, giving me a variety of facial expressions and movements. Chimps do take excellent direction, but they have very short attention spans. Shooting more than 5 minutes at a time without a break can leave you with a bored chimp walking from the viewfinder.
Once again we learn that actually taking the picture is the easy part. The more work and research you put in behind the scenes, the better your pictures will be for it.
With both shoots a success, I just received a call from a client that wants to include a rhinoceros in a shot. So again I research. WANTED: ONE RHINOCEROS; MUST WORK WELL WITH PEOPLE!
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