This post is a little late, 6 months late to be exact.
Back in October 2015, I spent a long weekend up at Inverness. Whilst there I spent the day at the Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie.

It’s a really great place to spend a day, one of the most enjoyable zoos I’ve had the pleasure to visit. You’ll find a great selection of animals there and as well as a safari drive through.

I decided in advance it would make sense to take a long lens with me of which I have 2. The one I chose was my Pentax 75-300mm F4.5 lens. I’ve previously used this lens and I’ve found that it’s auto focus is not quite what it should be. It never seems give a sharp picture and for that reason I’ve rarely used it. However I felt being at a wildlife park that I was going to need my longest lens which is this one, so I gave it another chance. I switched off auto focus and used manual only and by taking my time I managed to get some decent snaps. One thing I learned was that by using the long lens and manual focus, I was able to almost get rid of the cages and mesh surrounding the animals. You’ll still see some slightly blurry lines across some of the pictures where I couldn’t quite focus the cages out however in general I’m reasonably happy with how they turned out. Using the lens for the day has given me the confidence to do so again, although I’ll be keeping it on manual.

I’ve picked a small selection of my favourite pictures to show you, I do hope you enjoy them.
Paul

P.S. If you ever decide to visit make sure you head up to the picnic spot at the top of the hill near the entrance, the view from there is spectacular.

Click on the photos below if you want the full size image.