A visit to a zoo always creates mixed feelings as I love to see animals in their natural environments but it is good to re-connect with nature. There are good zoos and bad zoos of course, but I feel that Chester zoo is one of the better ones and I’m comfortable supporting them.

The tricky thing when photographing animals in enclosures is to isolate them from their surroundings – avoiding fencing, netting and such like. I tend to shoot with a wide aperture to isolate the subject and also look closely at the background to minimise distractions. Sometimes with careful positioning you can get some great images, taking tightly cropped portraits is a solution that I often use to get a better shot. Some images are shown below…