Now that first fellah looks cooooool...

Cheers

Thank you very much everyone for the kind comments. It is a great place to go for British animals. The opening hours are unconventional (I think it is only open at weekends unless otherwise specifically arranged - e.g. for a photo day or a school party visit), but the keepers are great and knowledgable - and interested in photography - and on an organised day you can go inside the enclosures and get up close with the animals, which is a treat.

John - interesting question on focal length. I started with the DA300 (red squirrel), and found actually I might have been better with something a little shorter as I was able to get very close indeed (at one point one of the squirrels was on my head!), so I switched to the 200mm for most of the rest of the time, which I thought was a good focal length. Looking at what other people were using (mostly Canon users), there were several using 70-200mm lenses, one with what looked like telescopic 100-400 (or something like that) and one guy with an impressive tripod mounted monster 500mm f4 prime, which I think cost more than all of my kit, and my car (and possibly most of the rest of the contents of my house!) - although it did in fairness seem to deliver pretty stunning results.

The lenses you mention would all work well, and you could probably get some funky shots really close up with a much shorter length as well - there are some brilliant shots on the forum here of red squirrels taken with a 10-20 lens, for example. In the afternoon when I was there and the weather was deteriorating, I was pleased to have the wide aperture of the DA*200 - the pic here of the weasel was I think taken fully open at f2.8.

Cheers again all

Great pics! - look at that smoke! Good job on the sky second time around especially, although actually I don't mind the cables so much. Nice to see the weather getting a bit brighter too

Cheers

What a great set - very characterful creatures and well taken - cool viewpoints too. Top stuff

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Hello again all. Following on from the thread of the Barn Owl at the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey, I thought I would share a handful of portraits of the various creatures there. It's a great place to go if you get the chance to do one of their photography days. On the day I was there severe weather warnings were in place across the country and many places were shrouded in snow, but miraculously the weather at the centre was mostly not-too-bad... (ish)

1. Me me me... (Red Squirrel) (DA*300)



2. Busted (A Fox called Frodo) (DA*200)



3. Waiting (Tawny Owl) (DA*200)



4. Kevin the Barn Owl (in Colour) (DA*200)



5. Can you see me? (Hedgehog) (DA*200)



6. Proud Whiskers (Otter named Elwood) (Sigma 100-300 f4)



7. Kendra steps out (Wildcat) (Sigma 100-300 f4)



8. Ow ow ow... (Harvest Mouse) (Sigma 180 Macro) - he was TINY (about the size of a 50 pence piece)



9. Pop! (Weasel sniffing at some catfood on a log) (DA*200)



10. Polecat stare (DA*200) - the light was failing considerably by this point and I reckon B/W works a bit better...



11. Bright-eyed Stoat (DA*200)



12. Brock (Badger) (DA*200)



Hope you like these. I lugged a range of lenses around around with me and have noted which lens was used. I especially enjoyed the DA*200 - I always think it is a real beauty whenever I use it. As ever, there are a load more pics on my flickr if anyone wants to see more.

Cheers

Top set; +1 for the dog! (in a t-shirt?). Cool

It does look like a stonking lens.

Cheers

Top shot. I see these guys now and then but never get anything like as close as this!

Cheers

Wow, thanks for the link - really great pics.

Cheers

Does it autofocus when you press the shutter button? there is a menu option to turn off autofocus from the shutter button, and to have it just operated with the 'AF' button on the rear of the camera. If that is the problem then that should fix it I think...

Cheers

Thanks guys, much appreciated. John - yes that's the one, on the A22 near Lingfield. Top place

Cheers