I feel very blessed to live near such an established
location in Yorkshire. The ‘Yorkshire Wildlife Park’ is well known to most in
Yorkshire and is common words to anyone that lives in south Yorkshire. For most
people in Doncaster is a mere 20 minutes away from the main gates and hearing
the lions roar. I adore the place although I’ve only been three times. Most
people whom have grown up around the park are used to going every summer or so…
which of course can take the shine of the place. Take it from someone who used
to live in the Shire where it was a good 20 minutes in a car to a local shop, I
think it’s amazing, very few places have wildlife parks right near a housing
estate after all.
So although I’m sure most people know all about it, I’m
going to write as if it’s for the people whom have never been before: it really
is a lovely day out (as long as the sun stays out). YWP is huge for where it is
and what it used to be, before 2009 it was a simple farm and over the winter
leading up to 2009 it became what we know and love as YWP. With over 300
animals on site (and constantly upgrading) it’s been in the eye of the media
for many reasons the most recent one was of course: the first Polar bear (They
now have like 6?!) Name an animal and there is a good chance you will be able
to see it here – the main ones they don’t have are Gorillas or an Elephant! The
park has some wonderful features with a ‘Wallaby walkabout’ where they will
literally hop across your path and you can give them a stroke, same with lemur
area although I wouldn’t give them a tough apparently they bite!
For £15 per person you can stay as long as you want, with a
large gift shop and several food places onsite you can truly spend the entire
day here taking in the animals and wandering around to catch feeding times.
When we went the weather was over cast but still relatively warm which I was so
thankful for, the other two times I’ve been it was raining and cold so most the
animals didn’t want to come say hello to anyone. I will be timing it with the
weather and themed events (which they do often) For my trip last time it was
‘Alice in wonderland’ which was killing two birds with one stone, I adore
anything surrounding ‘Alice in wonderland’ be it the old school books or the
new ‘Tim Burton’ films. They had Helter skelters, face painting and tea parties
among other thing. They even had people in big costumes walking around talking
to people and putting on shows.
Sadly, I was here for one reason… The animals. Wanting to be
a wildlife photographer is hard in England, unlike America (or somewhere like
that) I can’t walk far enough out and hope to find a bear. The most I might get
is a fox or badger which as beautiful as any creature isn’t as mind blowing as
a white wolf. I understand it takes time and patience (and most of the time a
lot of money) but I’m trying to practise in as many ways as possible and if
going to zoo, safari parks and wildlife parks helps me learn about the animal’s
behaviours and I can get the odd good photo… I’m happy.
This trip taught me a lot about myself if I’m honest, I’m so
impatient. I often expect the photo to line its self up for me as soon as I get
my camera out. Which doesn’t happen at all in this type of work. Many times I
put my camera down puffing I never got a good enough shot because the animals
aren’t doing much to find them start to roll around a minute later, that’s just
karma showing me to take things slower.
I fell in love with these two little meerkats as soon as I
laid eyes on them at first they were running round together in both the inside
and outside enclosures and then they climbed up onto a rock and laid like this.
I have no idea is this is normal behaviour or how old they could be (pretty
sure they aren’t full adults) but I got 2 different angles and I think it looks
like the traditional post card Meerkat image which I love! Meerkats are
everywhere recently so they are commonly photographed but they are still loved
by the masses…I believe the thanks go to Alexander!
I stood for ages trying to get a good image of the adults
with the baby in the pouch – I mean Tom had to drag me by my ear away by the
end of it. I’m not over the moon with the first image but I was the best one I
managed to capture, I do think its slightly original as you see most images of
mother and child stood up. It took forever in Photoshop to crop it perfectly as
although I attempted to lay it out while taking the photo, trying to do that
and get some characteristics captured is hard so the layout on the original
photo just didn’t work for me. I really like the second one though, every time
I look at it I just think of Wallaby gang wars and I start doing a little
chuckle.
Inside the lemur enclosure there was this big guy whom
refused to move for the keepers and just plonked himself a ft. away from the
path and laid out on this back. We called him Steve and I wanted to take him
home. He was super sweet and just sat while I photographed him, I often like to
take photos of animals If I can get more of a personality captured. I think
that worked in this image.
Each one of these photos where extra hard to take because of
the wire fence all the way around the enclosure. I had to change my aperture
level to a degree I never thought I would be happy to photograph with… purely
because of no practise. I attempted to get rid of as much of the wiring as
possible and focus on the animals. I tried to keep these images as natural as
possible because I’m so proud of how they came out on the camera before any
tweaking in Photoshop. The Tigers where so content when we got there, jumping
round and playing with each other. It’s natural behaviour that I hadn’t
witnessed before, which made photographing it very hard at first. I got the
hang of it over time noticing small tail dips which come just before one tiger
would jump on another.
At one part of the tiger enclosure you walk up a ramp and
round on a wooden bridge, this brings you over the metal fencing but from a
photographer’s point of view it’s not great most the time. The angle of looking
down onto an animal instantly makes it look less natural, you can tell straight
away its been done at a zoo. I would never lie and say my photos are of wild
animals but I like to make them as natural looking as possible.
The lions where super hard to capture all of them where sat
high up on rocks and not doing much. It tried to get a few images but it had
just started to rain too! I’m all staying out to get a good image but I hadn’t
brought my waterproof overalls for my camera or bag! Rookie mistake not been
prepared!
So that’s all my images, I hope you enjoyed reading this and
feel free to leave me any comments!
I’d love to hear your feedback!!
Kerriss brown xo
