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My first photo trip to Tama Zoological Park
In July 2019, I went to Inokashira zoo in Kichijoji on a sweltering hot summer day. While it was fun, the photography wasn’t. It was too hot. I put that down as a learning experience and was happy with that. Well, I repeated the mistake at Tama Zoological Park in Hino City, in Tokyo’s west.
In all honesty, I knew I shouldn’t have gone there in such hot summer weather, but I wanted to photograph some animals. It had been far too long since I shot any, except my dog and he’s family, so he doesn’t count. As I had already done Inokashira, I didn’t want to go there again. And Ueno Zoo? From what I understood, you needed to purchase those in advance. I didn’t want to do that, in case it rained.
And that left a long train ride out to Tama Zoological Park. It was a nice ride, so that wasn’t a problem. I like taking the Keio line out to areas in suburban Tokyo. Anyway, I was ready. On the web, I found only good things written about the place.
Well, I was surprised upon arrival. The reality was a little different. In many areas, the zoo looked pretty old. Some of the cages seemed rather rusty.
And the hills? On a hot summer day? Tama Zoological Park is a big place. But foolish me, I decided to walk everywhere.
The day’s photography was quite hard, much harder than at Inokashira zoo. Many cages had bars that were close together. People walking by must have wondered what I was doing. I was poking my camera here and there, trying to find a space to get a shot.
Another problem was the enclosures. In some cases, the animals were a particular color, and the background was the same. You couldn’t get enough separation between them.
And the dirt on all the windows! Some of them were filthy. But then again, I could understand few volunteers would want to enter the tiger’s cage. Still, I would have appreciated something clear to shoot through.
Of course, there were the other typical “zoo” problems. I had a hard time trying to balance the shadows and highlights. For example, there was a sliver of shade in some enclosures for its occupant to rest in, with concrete or sand open to the sun just a few centimeters away. So an animal was in deep shade with a blazing point of light almost right next to it. For me, that wasn’t easy to photograph.
And talking about shade, I pitied the elephant in its concrete enclosure, which didn’t offer it much relief from the heat. The poor thing seemed to be dancing to keep its feet cool. But, no one at the zoo seemed to think anything wrong with that.
The zoo was very 70s or 80s. It wasn’t modern in some places. But at least they had an abundance of toilets. If you suddenly needed one, you wouldn’t have had any worries!
I’ve only photographed at two zoos in Japan, Tama, and Inokashira. Tama is much harder to shoot, in my opinion. But it is a much bigger place with a much greater range of animals. Out of all the problems I’ve written, the worst three (in my “photographer’s” opinion) were:
- The bars on some cages make it hard to photograph.
- Some cages looked old and unattractive.
- The way some animals were displayed was poor.
Ueno Zoo is my final place to shoot animals. I haven’t been there in many, many years. And the last time I went there, I wasn’t even interested in photography.
Tama Zoological Park would rate pretty low if I gave it a score. That is only my opinion, of course. But when I visited it in 2020, it should have given its visitors more. It should also have given its animals more too. At least entry was inexpensive at ¥600.
Maybe the best thing about the day was realizing my Fujifilm X-T2 hadn’t lost anything. Released in 2016 (is that right?), the camera was still going strong. I wondered how much life was left in mine.
Please leave questions and comments below. And I’d love to hear opinions about Tama Zoological Park. Anyway, I’ll regard this visit there as a test run. Hopefully, I’ll get better pictures next time.
Tama Zoological Park photo gear:
- Camera body: Fujifilm X-T2
- Lens: Fujifilm XF 55-200 mm f/3.5-4.8 R LM OIS
For more animal articles, look at:
External articles about photographing animals at zoos
- 7 Tips for Photographing Animals at the Zoo on Bob Books