Zooming in at the zoo

The zoo is a perfect place to practice your Snapzoom photography!

We captured these amimal shots at the Honolulu Zoo. Try timing your visit in the cool of the morning or late afternoon as the animals will be more active and the light is better.

This black crowned crane was spectacular. 

We rather liked the black vignetting around this sleeping tiger, but you can zoom in slightly on when using Snapzoom to avoid it, like in the other photos here.

The Iwa bird.

Show us what you're doing with Snapzoom by tagging us with #Snapzoom to share your best shots on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Taking better birding photos through … dance?

We were excited to meet with some of the world’s top digiscopers at the World Digiscoper Meeting in Florida recently, and also had a chance to show off what Snapzoom can do. We captured these images during our trip using Snapzoom, a Swarovski Optik 65 STX spotting scope and an iPhone 6 plus.

Being around such amazing photographers was inspiring, and we picked up a few tips we thought we’d pass on too.

Tara Tanaka, named the Swarovski Digiscoper of the Year in both 2011 and 2012, was wonderful to watch in action. She noted that it takes a lot of practice and knowledge of birds and their environment to capture video like this, but we also found it fascinating to observe her stance behind the camera. She stands low, with her knees bent, and remains very fluid, almost dancing behind the camera. She told us it’s important fall into a rhythm with her subjects.

We’re not sure our dance moves could keep up, but we loved seeing this strategy executed so flawlessly. What moves make you a better digiscoper?