Heh and now we all know one secret ingredient of Prada! Could have made it easier if they'd posted the black fabric in the post to the zoo and had them setup the pen a few days in advance. Then just go in and change for fresh black material if needed and then the tiger would have been more comfortable. Surprised they used a cage, would have thought someone doing this kind of project would have worked with more docile tigers - then again there's always risk and with cameras and flash a cage might well have been more practically safe even with a tiger used to human contact.
His ongoing project, the Photo Ark, is trying to capture as many rare animals as possible. As such, I assume he wants subspecific tigers and not generic (the kind he could get from a trainer and use in a studio). They did not state which zoo this was at, but based on the tiger's appearance I would be willing to bet it is a Malayan tiger.
Now I know why I can't ever seem to capture that "National Geographic Type Shot". I don't have a staff of 3, a trained exoitic animal, and several hours of exclusive access. However, those are some amazing photos, and it is very interesting to see how they were obtained.
We're all equal... Goes to show that to get really great captive animal photographs it's not what you know, it's who you know !
