Glass Tiger

Light Meter by Lisa K. Berton

Amidst the iconic settings on your point and shoots cameras lies one that looks a l’il something like this.

It is the adorable shooting mode for Kids & Pets. It allows you to capture youngsters and animals who don’t sit still. Generally speaking, you can focus on someone who is about 3 feet away from the front of the lens when it’s at it’s widest mm or on someone who is 9 feet or further away when the lens is zoomed all the way out.

With my Canon Powershot SX 100IS dialed to Kids & Pets, I went looking for a grrrrreat model or as it happened, models, on the Maharajah Jungle Trek in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Relaxing on the grassy hill sat an Asian tiger, completely bored and uninterested in the humans staring at him/her through glass walls.

Thanks to the sun being directly behind me, the glass in front of me, and the tiger nearly lined up with me, this photo worked out well. I’m especially glad that he/she wasn’t bouncing deliriously on his/her tail.

I moved to another viewing spot, coming from down some steps and to the right of the tiger. This completely changed how my photos would turn out. Reflections of the design elements behind creeped into my shot.

Finding a third and final location from which to photograph the kitty is where I found the second one. Off to the right, closer in proximity to Guests, was another kitty. From this angle, reflections off the glass were just terrible. My subject was in shade, I was in shade but the contrast between where the sun hit behind and above me created reflections and washed out a chunk of the wall.

Thankfully my furry friend headed onto the hill and plopped down in a place that was perfectly illuminated for both of us. Ah, that was much better.

My first model relocated to a shady spot close to the glass wall but here again, with the sun brightening us up, well, it didn’t pan out well.

Keep in mind when photographing through glass that you need to carefully watch for reflections. Get the front of your lens as close to the glass as possible without climbing over ropes and barriers. Change locations as often as you need to do so. Don’t use your flash as that will just bounce off the glass and you’ll hear snickering from non-domestic pets.