River Safari (Part 2): Rivers of the World

Apart from the pandas as shared in yesterday's post, there are other areas of attractions which cover the key rivers of the world such as Mississippi River, Congo River, River Nile, Ganges River, Mekong River, Yangtze River and the Wild Amazon.

A tour around the River Safari would take around 2-3 hours, considering the need to spend 10mins at every attraction point to take photographs. You will get to see many information and insights into the types of wildlife and marine life that lives along the river.

Wild Amazon

As a photographer, the Wild Amazon attracted me most (besides the Giant Panda Forest). Although the Amazon River Quest boat ride will only be available until later this year, there are still several interesting stuff for photography …

Live Feeding of Fishes

It was exciting to see big fishes (cannot remember the name of the fish) jumping off the ponds for the bait/food in the air i.e. how the fish body twist in the air, the bite on the bait/food and the splashes it create. A shutter speed of at least 1/500s is required to freeze them in the air if you want a sharp picture. Using a wider aperture and higher ISO without a flash would help to achieve the required shutter speed.

Squirrel Monkeys

They are held inside an open-air enclosure which you can enter. Although there is a stench inside the enclosure, it is worth entering as these squirrel monkeys are totally not shy to human and they can get really close like less than 1m. They hardly kept till which means that you will need to turn on continuous focusing mode (AI Servo) in order to track and photograph them. The nature light should be bright enough for the right shutter speed going on an Aperture Priority (AP) mode.

Amazon Flood Forest

There is a big fish tank which shows how the amazon forest is flooded at certain part of the year. The big fish tank is somewhat similar to that seen in S.E.A. Aquarium but of a smaller scale.

Although there are nice sea cows in the big fish tank, the thick fish tank glass and poor lighting condition inside here is really unfavorable for photography. Besides from the need to bump up the ISO as high as I can get and need to switch to manual focusing, there is also a risk of chromatic aberration occurring in the picture taken (e.g. purple fringes around the sea cow picture below).

The Other Rivers

Frankly speaking, the attractions did not fulfill my photography appetite because most of the wild life and marine life are kept in tanks which has poor lightning condition. In addition, the reflection of the glasses caused by the sunlight behind me, makes focusing and picture composition difficult.

With reflection falling on the fish tanks, auto focusing would be difficult. Switching to manual focusing would help. All other tips relating to photographing fishes in tanks in my earlier post can be observed and applied here as well.

Other Subjects for Photography

Shadows from Landscape

Walking along the River Safari, I find that there are interesting shadows from the buildings and bridges on the Upper Seletar Reservoir which makes good photography subjects.