King Kong may live at the Denver Zoo!! Luckily this BIG guy was on the other side of this thick glass. I had never seen a gorilla up this close. I am impressed! Not sure how much he weighed, but I am guessing 500-700 lbs. Pure muscle!! He was checking out the people as much as the people were checking out him. I can safely say that I will not ever go into the Congo looking to find gorilla’s in the mist!! This photo is close enough for me! LOL
Tag Archives: Zoo
Denver, Colorado – Denver Zoo
I have been working on growing my photoshop skills and have seen many photographers take a subject (usually a car) and make it stand out. I did a young Giraffe and it came out as a fun shot! It is not too difficult to produce such a photo…took me about 20 minutes. The outcome is always kinda neat! Makes it seem as this little guy has a super long neck! LOL Have fun!
Denver, CO – Denver Zoo (HDR)
They say a picture is worth 1000 words…this one might be worth a few more? A touching moment to capture in time. I get a tear in my eye just looking at it. This one is for Mom’s all around the globe! Love is universal!! As this happened everyone around was ooh-ing and ahh-ing! Someone yelled out…hope someone took that photo! Whew! Luckily I got it! The world seems alot better after seeing a moment like this! =)))
Talke Photography Settings:
San Antonio, Texas – Boar-ed at the Zoo (HDR)
Earlier this summer we hit the San Antonio Zoo. I’ll admit that it is a challenge to take shots of zoo animals. You hope for them to be in the right spot and angle. But sometimes you catch them in a mid afternoon snooze! This dude was out like a light! I am sure his life is super exciting…so I understand his deep sleep. LOL Cute little fellow! I see he has his mud cream on. I still have some zoo targets to get…a Lion, Tiger, Zebra. I am certain I can have fun with those shots in Photoshop! Waco Zoo is my trip…sometime in the fall when it cools down in Texas. Hope you are having a great summer!
Talke Photography Settings:
San Antonio, TX – San Antonio Zoo (HDR)
I have been traveling alot recently and decided to take a day off yesterday. We took our little one to the San Antonio Zoo. It was a beautiful day…sunny and 73 degrees! All the Texas kids are on Spring Break this week. So the Zoo was crazy! It was my first ‘real” zoo ever! I had been to small town ones, but never a city zoo. I was prepared with my new Nikon 70-200 VR and Teleconverter! It was a great zoo to visit! They have many open cages to view these magnificent animals. I wanted to see the Tiger, Lion, Giraffe, Elephant, Kangaroos, Hippos and this big little guy….a Rhino!
We had a fun 3 hours walking around. This little guy was around 6000 lbs. Looks to me like a teenager? He walked around alot and posed for some shots. My wife and I did get a little sad for the animals as we walked along. They seemed bored…I suppose most zoo animals do. But I am sure they are taken care of well…they are safe and hopefully live a decent life? Anyway its a great place to take photos. We talked during our visit how great it would be to go on Safari! I’d need a bigger lens for that trip!!! …and a window camera mount! Ah to dream!
I did alright on my shots…Got a few good ones. I was shooting f/4 to try and get some bokeh working…but I think next time f/8 to f/11 (a few more stops up)….especially on a sunny day. Unfortunately, the Lion, Tiger and Grizzly Bear were sleeping..so no luck! This was my best shot of the day. I thought the Rhino skin in HDR might work well. Since it is almost impossible to shoot an animal in true HDR (due to movement)…this is an HDR via the Single RAW method. Worked fantastic!
While we watched this guy…something spooked him and he took off on a quick sprint! WOW! Amazingly fast!!! If this dude hit your car head on…your car would surely lose!!!!! They are like a little tank! I’ll get another shot up soon and post more details on this wonderful zoo!
Talke Photography Settings:
- Camera: Nikon D300
- Lens: Nikon 70-200 VR f/2.8 + Nikon TC-14EII (1.4x Teleconverter)
- Setting: Aperture Mode
- Focal Length: 180.0mm
- ISO: 200
- Exposure: 1/2500 sec (Single RAW HDR)
- Aperture: f/4.0
- Gear: Hand Held
- Post Process: Adobe CS4, Photomatix, Viveza, Lightroom 3.0
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