I recently went and photographed elephants at The Preserve, which is about ten miles East of downtown Fredericksburg. For $143.00, I got to photograph four elephants and also see a 1.5 hour show. I also did get to have my picture taken with the elephants.
The Preserve has four Asian female elephants, and they range in age from 34 to 54 years old. Asian elephants live to be about 60 and weigh about 8000 pounds.
I got to see the elephants eat and stand on their hind legs, along with various other tricks. It was fun, and I could get close to photograph them. I used my Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G lens. For my settings, I shot 14 bit lossless RAW and JPEG fine size optimal quality. I set my picture control to plus one on vivid and sharpening at auto. These files provide the best quality at the expense of being larger. This was difficult to shoot since the elephants were under an open shelter which casted a shadow on them. I mostly used the RAW files since these provided the most amount of dynamic range. For many of the shots I underexposed by a stop since digital can recover more information in the shadows. In simple terms, it is always better to underexpose digital versus overexpose. The one picture that I am in was shot with my iPhone 12. Overall this was a good experience since I could interact with the elephants.
