Minnesota Zoo

[rtbaum]

Well.......The better half went to tea, the home football team got blown out in the wild card game last night, and I was left on my own........so I went to the zoo to practice with the long lens........gee.....I am a wild man!!

Stopped to converse with a gentleman with a 300mm f 2.8 lens....standard discussion re: cold enough for ya, what settings, where have you been shooting lately, yadda yadda........When over his shoulder, I noted that the Przewalskii horses were getting a little friendly.......... I have posted the G version......I got the shot......he did not.......just goes to show......it's not the size of the gun, it's how you use it!!!



Asian Wild Horse

Temps for the day were somewhere in the teens... not bad.......considering that this is Minnesota (Land of 10,000 frozen Lakes and mercifully no mosquitoes). The Snow monkeys were enjoying the balmy weather



This next shot is not techniquely correct....But the humor of the moment was irresistable...This 10 month old Amur Leopard had gotten itself in a bit of a pickle, he/she had climbed up into the top of a small tree where the branches were a wee bit too weak to support its weight



Enough for now.....Have many more to process and post

[Sahil]

Hi Randy,

Great shots there.. I like how the horses are snuggling each other & expression of the monkeys is pretty funny!
One thing I would like to point out is that the snow in both the images is way too bright to focus on the main subjects. You can probably use dodge & burn tools to correct it. Overall also, they look li'l overexposed. Or it could be my laptop screen as well.
Hope I am not being harsh with my comments.

[Geoff F]

Interesting shots. I suppose you may have lost a little detail from the snow but you have nicely exposed the main subjects.

Possibly a little under exposure followed by selective brightening during editing may have been worth trying. But a bit of extra processing time would be needed; and these are obviously real life shots without 'thinking time' so they have worked well.

[kdoc856]

Randy,

Nice shots. Especially the leopard- not an easy focus to achieve with those intervening branches.

It's funny, I try as hard as the next guy to keep some detail in the snow, but sometimes I wonder, "what for"? If it's not glaringly over-exposed, I'm not sure it always makes a lick of difference.

[rtbaum]

Sahil- don't worry about being too harsh my journey needs all the help it can get. I was trying the ETTR method and therefore intentionally over exposed; shots were made in the early afternoon when the sun was at its brightest, reflection was pretty intense. When I set out to shoot at the zoo, I opted to visit the Tropics building first. If I had reversed my itinerary, I would have entered the humidity with a cold lens and body.....a real pain at best

Geoff- I appreciate the advice re: dealing with subjects set against a high contrast background, I am beginning to wonder if this may be a good time to experiment with HDR.

Enough waffling......As promised, it is time for the next selections



Goitered Gazelle

For the life of me....I never knew gazelles got goiter



I would have loved to get some awesome shots of the Grizzly and Black bears......But....Well...They were in hibernation!!! I settled for an incredibly cute Prairie dog



I waited for a cold 10 minutes for the Amur Tiger to move away from the fence....I apologize that I am not quite that dedicated

to be continued.....

[rtbaum]

For todays entries, I submit two Ungulates so ugly that they are cute and dogs with funny names


Moose - I kid you not when I say this guy loves to be petted and frequently hangs its head over the fence for just that


Takin


Dhole - I don't know why but I just love saying it....dhole, dhole.......

The thing that this zoo has done right is collecting animals that are comfortable in this climate, although it was all of 15 degrees F, all animals were quite comfortable (except the photographer).