Guide to Photographing at Jurong Bird Park (Part 1)

It has been more than 3 years since my last visit to Singapore Jurong Bird Park, and I can see a couple of new additions (i.e. Penguin Coast, Birdz of Play and Breeding & Research Centre) to the park in my recent visit. Beside being a good location to photograph birds in flight (as shared in my post yesterday), there are many other topics that a photographer can look out for.

I've put together a guide on photographing in Singapore Jurong Bird Park according to different categories of birds/subjects, so as to help anyone going there to plan what to focus on.

Tuxedoed Birds @ Penguin Coast

A number of species of penguins are housed indoor in an air-conditioned climate, while the African Penguins which has adapted to our tropical climate, can be found in the outdoor enclosure.

Indoor: The indoor lighting is a little dim but sufficient enough if the ISO is stretched to 1600 or 3200. Some of these penguins are really huge (especially the King Penguin) and they aren't really hyper which makes it easy to shoot them under low light condition.

Outdoor: On the opposite, these African Penguins are extremely hyper and always jumping in and out of the pond. Luckily, it is outdoor with sufficient lighting that will give you enough speed to freeze their action. For more interesting photograph, try catching them "playing" in the pond or during feeding hours.

Birdz of Play

This is a small water theme park for kids - great if you like taking pictures of kids having fun at the water. There are also rows of souvenir shops and restaurants for food/beverages.

Breeding & Research Centre

This is an interesting place to visit where you will get to see how eggs of incubated and hatched locally at the Singapore Jurong Bird Park, as well as nursery for different types of hatchlings (from few days to few months). Photographing them might be a little challenging as these hatchlings are kept in cages behind a glass window.

Colorful Birds at Close Proximity

If you like photographing colorful birds at close proximity, there are definitely plenty to photograph ...

Macaw

These are large colorful long-tailed parrots located at "Macaw Island". They typically stay still on the branches, which is easy to photograph and a 200mm focal length can easy get a good close-up of them.

Lory Loft

Another type of parrots but a lot smaller in size which can be found at "Lory Loft". They fly and move a lot which will need a fast-focusing lens and higher shutter speed to get a sharp picture of them. You can buy some food at $3 and feed them, which will allow you to get as close as less than an arm's length.

Mandarin Ducks

These mandarin ducks are kept in small ponds where it is partially shaded by the trees around. If you stay the location long enough, you may catch some of them dunking their heads into the pond or doing some "stretching" just like the photograph below.

Scarlet Ibis

I love the Scarlet Ibis for their bright beautiful red color feathers. They are always moving and the lighting condition inside the cage is not exactly great, which means that a higher ISO and a wider aperture has to be used to get sufficient shutter speed that could freeze their movement. While photographing them, you may also have to avoid the glare from the glass windows.

Royal Ramble

These pigeons have really beautiful crowns. They can get pretty close within 2-3m without any barriers in-between. However, the lighting condition inside the big cage enclosure is not so good, and higher ISO is definitely needed while photographing them.

The guide is a little long, so I'm splitting it into parts. Be sure to read Part 2 of this guide, as well as "Photograph Birds in Flight at Jurong Bird Park".

Please visit http://jefzlim.smugmug.com/Destinations/Singapore/Jurong-Bird-Park/ for more photos ...