So, I woke up early (for me early means after 10 AM :p) and I went to the Zoo. The weather didn't look to good, but at least there was still some snow, so I hoped i could get some good shots.
I think you're more interested in the photos then in my stories, so lets get started with the photos :)
Note : you can click on the images to see them in higher resolution.
The first animal I photographed was the ostrich, I only got one shot as it didn't want to keep its head above the fence, but I believe it's one of the best photos I got of the ostriches.
People watching CSI might have some fun zooming on the ostrich's eye and trying to see what they can see. I'll give you a helping hand, here's the zoomed image :
(for those curious enough to actually look at the picture, you can see me and my mother in the reflection ;) )
After this we got to the big bird cages, so let's show them.
First of all, the eagles :
The Crows ("wolf's friends" as some people call them) :
The Owls, the symbols of knowledge :
Sadly the Snow Owls where not present, from what I understood they where sent to another zoo for a "breeding program". I really would have loved to get some photos of them with the snow.
After that we entered the heated building that houses the small birds, reptiles and tropical plants. There we found some "new residents", mongooses. This little critters are fast moving and that makes them hard to shoot. As a friend said, i probably don't need a faster lens but a sleeping dart ;).
Anyways, here are a few photos (the only ones acceptable enough) :
Here are a few photos with the parrots from the same building :
Next, the reptiles, first of them the snakes. They were quite active, probably because it's the breading season ;) :
And we couldn't leave out the turtles and the crocodile :
I really need to get better photos of the reptiles ;)
After exiting the building I saw the little thiefs, the sparrows :
The peacock and the pheasant
And here comes "road runner" (Geococcyx of the cuckoo family). I wonder where Wile E. Coyote is :D
After that we wend to the big herbivores, first in the list "The Gentle Giant", it's a huge bull but it's very friendly, it really likes it when we play with him.
I didn't get any picture now since i was too busy playing with him :D
Next in line where the deers, there's one very friendly female, whenever she sees people next to the fences she goes there hoping to get some food (not that she's starving or anything, but she's in love with popcorn and the likes :p). So, here are 2 pictures of her :
Aren't here eyes gorgeous ? I know some girls that would like to have such beautiful eyes :D
Next, the bears, they don't seem to be "smarter than the average bear" as they didn't know they should be hibernating, so they where playing out in the snow :D
I bet Yogi would have been long asleep ;)
The bigger one found a plastic bottle and started playing with it, he was silly but cute ;)
After that, we went to my friends, the wolfs. I really love them, i can relate to them, often I feel like one of them :)
And of course a groupshot (not all of them are present) :
And next, the main attractions of the Zoo, the Siberian Tigers. From my point of view they should be the kings of animals, not the lions :D
Next where the bobcats, this time they where not sleeping in the tree (like they always do), so we managed to get quite a few good pictures with them, here they are :
One of the bobcats decided we where "fair game" so he started hunting us (lucky for us he was in the cage, otherwise ... ):
Another one of the bobcats gave us the "I'm hungry, you look like food" look :)
One of the bobcats got very angry, first at the puma (who's cage is right next to it) then at us :
Now, if you only see the next pictures, you'll think it's just another house cat, but this kitty is quite dangerous, it can take down a deer too :
After all this, we decided it was time to go home, it was getting colder and colder, but at the exit we met with "Bambi", so i took a few shots of it too :
So, for finishing, here are a few statistics. I've made about 900 pictures, and only had to "throw away" (as in delete) only 90 of them, for me this is a very good performance ;)
I know Sergiu would tell me I'm "trigger happy", but that's just how I am.
Oh, and as a finishing note. What did i do different this time in order to get sharper images, well, here are the 3 things :
- I increased the ISO as much as i could (made most photos at ISO 1000-1200) so that i could get a very low exposure time
- I deactivated the VR, i finally understood when NOT TO USE the VR ;)
- I overexposed the pictures and then "repaired" the images in Lightroom, this helped in getting more details, specially with the darker animals.
