jewelisms

jewel April 27th, 2008

Yesterday my photography class met at the zoo for our second field trip. I love the zoo. I’d love to go there more often. So, anyway, I cleared off my memory cars, charged the camera batteries and off we went. It was a beautiful morning. We got there around 8:30 and met by the panda’s. They were all out and chowing on some bamboo. Mmmmm…..breakfast, said my stomach, as I remembered I forgot to pack that granola bar.

In spite of the fact that the panda’s had the tendency to sit with their backs toward the zoo goers as they ate, I managed to get a few really good shots. I even got a couple of the red panda’s — and they are just so cute!

After the Asia Trail, we all headed for the Bird House, where I absolutely suck at getting any shots worth anything – but the birds are always lovely to look at. And then the Small Mammal House. We were going to practice our flash through glass technique, but it was really too crowded to be able to do that. The zoo was hosting a special even that was drawing more people in than normal. Great for the zoo, not so good for our practice. Well, I’ll try it out another day.

Because of the extra people brought in by the special event, I’m assuming, there was a line to get into the Reptile House. Too bad, because the last time I was at the zoo I skipped the Reptile House because it was too crowded in there. It’s on my list for next time, for sure. So, I set off for the Big Cats. My favorite parts of the zoo are the panda’s and the tigers, so those are always a must see for me. It matters not how many times I have visited them in the past.

The lions were lounging in the shade where it was difficult to get any good photos of them. It was about nap time, so who could blame them. One of the tigers was also hanging out under a tree at the top of the habitat. So we headed around to the other side and the tiger there was a bit more active. He wandered around and played with a big ball that was in his habitat – he dragged it up to the top, which is always fun to watch and then he found a smaller ball and gnawed on that for awhile. I took a great many shots of him and got several that I really like.

One of these days I’m going to have to take a day off work and get up insanely early and take the metro in and see what shots I can get before it gets hot.

I put up a gallery of yesterday’s visit, that you can look at, if you’d like:

National Zoo – 26 April 2008

• hobby , out & about , personal
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