Mammoth Elephant

OK, the mammoths weren’t moving, and they invaded on a flatbed truck – but they were big and fierce looking. Today was the first stop on a six-city tour for the mammoth elephants and sabre-tooth tigers built in Wausau, Wisconsin, and headed for the San Diego Zoo. After Milwaukee, the mammoths will be stopping in:

• Chicago
• St. Louis
• Las Vegas
• Phoenix
• Los Angeles

And then home to the San Diego Zoo. You can track the tour at www.elephantodyssey.com/tour.

While the replicas were truly large – they were cooped up on the truck – making it difficult to get any decent photographs. But ever the intrepid soul, I tried to use a telephoto lens to isolate several of the animals.  In a situation like this, close-ups can be a more effective tool to isolate a subject, eliminating distracting backgrounds.

Sabretooth Tiger

For example, this picture of the sabretooth tiger was shot with my Tamron 28-300 mm lens, set at 237 mm (ISO 200, 1/100 s. at f/11).  While the tiger was strapped down and wedged between several other animals, the closeup on its face eliminates many of the distracting factors while still giving a sense of the fierceness the animal represents. Another method of isolation, which I’ll have to try next time, is to use the zoom capability of the lens to blur all but the center focus. This can be done by choosing a slower shutter speed and moving the zoom out while taking the shot – the center will stay in focus while the edges blur from the changing lens length.