The Whitby, New York: A Walk Through a Midtown Hotel
The Bronx Zoo: Four Ways Out of the Fencing Problem
Fencing is the standing zoo problem. At a zoo this size the other problem is distance.
Whether you fancy a backdrop of tropical birds or the calm of the butterfly garden, the zoo caters to all tastes, as its own description has it.
That range is the thing to plan around, because at a zoo of this size range means distance. A very large zoo has more distinct settings than any single day can use and the walk between two of them can consume fifteen minutes each way — so the risk is not finding something good but spreading a day thin and spending it on paths.
The standing photographic problem is the ordinary one for the venue type: mesh, bars, railings and safety barriers exist in every direction and cannot be removed. The difficulty is not that they are ugly but that a wide lens keeps them sharp and legible, complete with the sign, the bin and the service door beside them.
What a zoo of this scale has in its favour is mature planting a smaller one cannot manufacture, and indoor houses — tropical, butterfly and habitat buildings — which are a completely different photographic environment from the grounds. This is written as the problem and four ways out of it. We have not photographed a wedding at the Bronx Zoo; zoos behave consistently. Which locations a booking includes, how long it takes to move between them, whether the grounds can be private, and what the indoor fallback holds are the questions for their team.
The Bronx Zoo at a glance
| Where | The Bronx, New York |
| Character | A very large zoo with mature planting, tropical houses and gardens |
| Two problems | Fencing in every direction, and distance between everything |
| The ways out | Focal length, canopy, the houses, and a decided route |
| Ask first | Locations included, travel time, private grounds, indoor fallback |
The problem, precisely
Fencing is a focal length problem before it is anything else. At 35mm a barrier five metres behind a couple reads clearly as a fence, and the incidental objects beside it — signage, bins, service doors, hose reels — do more damage to a frame than the mesh itself.
Animals are the second condition and they behave as content rather than background, because human vision prioritises movement and faces. An animal visible behind a couple takes the eye every time, which is either the point of the frame or a distraction, with no useful middle position.
Glass viewing panels are the third: they reflect whatever is bright behind the camera, they are usually scratched, and they tint slightly. Shooting obliquely moves the reflected cone off the lens; a rubber hood pressed flat and shot perpendicular removes it entirely, but only for frames without people in them.
Other visitors are the fourth, and at a zoo in New York they are not avoidable at any hour a wedding happens unless the grounds can be private. That is a question worth asking directly rather than assuming.
And distance is the fifth, and it is specific to a zoo of this size. Two locations that look adjacent on a map can be a long walk apart, and a wedding party in formal clothes moves slowly. Three moves in an afternoon consumes an hour of coverage in walking, which is why the route matters more here than the shot list.
The answer to that last one is simple and unglamorous: walk the route in advance with a stopwatch rather than an impression, and build the day around two or three locations rather than six. Four known positions beat an hour of exploring anywhere, and at this scale they beat it by a wide margin.
Four ways out
The first way out is optical and it solves the fencing almost entirely. A long lens at a wide aperture, with the couple several metres in front of any barrier, turns mesh into an unreadable soft band — present in the frame but not legible as fencing. At 135mm or 200mm wide open, a barrier five metres back becomes texture rather than structure, and the sign and the bin go with it.
The corollary is that a wide lens near an enclosure is a mistake rather than a preference. If a frame seems to require one, it needs a different position instead.
The second way out is the mature planting, which a long-established zoo has and a new one cannot manufacture. Continuous deep shade under old trees is soft, cool and directional towards any opening, available for hours — and in a humid New York July it is the only condition in which formal clothes and a long outdoor block are compatible. Locating the largest unbroken area of it on arrival is the most useful five minutes on the site.
Dapple is the corresponding hazard: hot spots several stops above the surrounding shadow across a face, shifting with every breath of wind, impossible to correct or predict. Full shade, open light, or wait for the sun to drop below the canopy. And green bounce from dense foliage is localised, so a custom white balance set on a face in the position being used is the answer, with any pale path used as a neutral bounce.
The third way out is the houses, and at a zoo of this size they are a genuine second venue rather than a fallback. A tropical or butterfly house is a glazed, planted, enclosed environment, and under overcast it is one of the best photographic spaces there is: light arrives through the whole roof and both flanks, diffused twice, from everywhere at once with no hard edge, and position stops mattering.
Under direct sun the glazing bars print a lattice of hard shadow across everything including faces, which cannot be corrected — so on a sunny day find the pockets under dense planting inside, use the lattice on a path rather than on skin, or shift the hour so the sun comes through the flanks rather than the roof.
A tropical house is also hot and very humid by design, which means a camera carried in from outside will fog immediately and may not clear while you remain inside. Let the kit acclimatise before it is needed, and expect the same in reverse on the way out.
The fourth way out is the animals, used deliberately rather than avoided. If an animal is going to take the eye anyway, commit: place the couple to one side, let it be a co-subject, and make a photograph about both. That is the frame a zoo exists to give and the reason a couple chose it. Half-in — an animal partly visible, partly cropped — fails.
- Long lens, wide aperture, couple several metres clear of any barrier
- Never a wide lens near an enclosure; find a different position
- Walk the route with a stopwatch; two or three locations is a full day
- Find the largest continuous canopy shade before the middle of the day
- Let the kit acclimatise before entering a tropical house, and after
The hours, the fallback, and New York's year
The last ninety minutes do two things at once at a zoo. Low raking light lights the couple while putting mesh and railings into shadow, which physically reduces how much the fencing matters; and it backlights foliage so the grounds read as planted rather than merely green. It is the window the whole schedule should protect — and at a zoo of this size, protecting it means being at the right location before it starts rather than walking to it during.
Group photographs need a decided position rather than an improvised one, because zoo paths are narrow and enclosures interrupt rows. The candidates are usually a lawn, a terrace or the front of a building — find the one that works and know it before it is needed.
The indoor fallback is the question to settle honestly. Afternoon thunderstorms are a real possibility in a New York summer, and a zoo’s indoor spaces may be animal houses with their own constraints rather than function rooms. Ask what it is, how many it holds, and by what time the call gets made.
Animal houses as fallbacks carry the aquarium’s problems in miniature: warm, humid, dim, with glazed panels and strong colour. One gelled source at face height, exposed a stop under the room, and frames shot obliquely to any glass, covers it.
New York’s seasons are four real ones and they change a zoo more than they change a building. Summer is hot and humid, which makes the canopy essential and the open paths difficult, and the houses hotter still. Autumn is the best season: mature planting gives genuine colour in late October, animals are often more active in cool weather than in heat, and the air is at its clearest.
Winter is the hard one. Days are short, with sunset in the middle of the afternoon in December, which compresses the whole outdoor window into a couple of hours — and bare planting opens sight lines, which makes fencing more visible rather than less. That is worth saying plainly to a couple considering a winter date at a zoo.
Snow is the compensation and it does something useful here beyond being the best natural fill there is: it covers paths and railings, which genuinely reduces the fencing problem for as long as it lasts. Snow in mature planting with a lit glasshouse behind it is the best frame this site will give all year — and it fools a meter by about two stops, so add them.
And a route alternating between warm humid houses and cold outside air will fog a lens repeatedly, which at a zoo of this size compounds the walking problem. Plan the route to minimise crossings rather than accepting several, and where possible keep one body at ambient temperature throughout.
More frames from The Bronx Zoo
The Bronx Zoo wedding photography: common questions
How do you deal with fencing?
Optically. A long lens at a wide aperture with the couple several metres clear of any barrier turns mesh into an unreadable soft band — and takes the sign and the bin with it.
What is the second problem at a zoo this size?
Distance. Two locations that look adjacent can be a long walk apart, and three moves consume an hour of coverage. Walk the route with a stopwatch and build the day around two or three places.
Why are the houses a second venue rather than a fallback?
Because under overcast a glazed planted house is one of the best photographic environments there is — light through the whole roof and both flanks, diffused twice, with position barely mattering.
What is the equipment risk in a tropical house?
Fogging, in both directions. It is hot and very humid by design, so a camera carried in fogs immediately and may not clear while you stay inside — and the same happens on the way out.
What do you do about animals in frame?
Commit or exclude. Place the couple to one side and let an animal be a co-subject, or leave it out. Half-in — partly visible, partly cropped — fails.
Is winter good at a zoo?
Mixed. Days are short and bare planting opens sight lines, which makes fencing more visible. But snow covers paths and railings, which genuinely reduces the problem while it lasts.
More New York venue guides
We are writing a photographer’s guide to every venue we would happily shoot in New York. Here are three more, plus the full index:
- The Brooklyn Botanic Garden: How the Light Moves
- The Carlyle, New York: Photographing a Hotel of Individual Rooms
- The Central Park Zoo: Four Ways Out of the Small Zoo Problem
Planning a wedding at The Bronx Zoo?
Two locations and a stopwatch beat six and a map. Tell us your date.
