CREATIVE CROPPING Taking pictures at the zoo can be a challenge because you never know what the animals will be up to. Many animals sleep during the day, and unless you catch them at a feeding time, you are likely to take home a lot of sleepy pictures. One way to make your zoo photos more interesting is to crop them in a creative way. A wide shot of a rhino can look rather disappointing. But cropping to highlight unexpected parts of the animal can yield fabulous results... For this trip to the zoo, I used my Nikon D70s and a 210mm lens. This is the longest lens I have, so I focused on the areas of the animals that most interested me and cropped even further when I got home, using Photoshop. Here are before and after shots of a lazy hippo. The close cropping on the hippo's nose gives the shot a focal point and makes the shot much more interesting. I used the crop tool in Photoshop to eliminate the parts of the frame I didn't want. I really like the cropped version because you can feel the texture of the Hippo's nose and the bits of hay stuck to his (or her??) skin. It also makes you take notice of the pink color around its eyes. This rhino looked rather sad alone in his pen. You can see that this wide shot I took is really boring. Ho Hum. So I zoomed in all the way and focused on his jowels, highlighting the texture of his hide and all its folds. Shazam! Much more interesting, and it makes me want to moisturize! For Part 1 of this article and more tips on taking pictures at the zoo, click here.