Blijdorp zoo [Pic heavy]

[Judobreaker]

I went to the zoo yesterday. Fun!

1. Prairie dog

2. Prairie dogs

3. Duck

4. Bird

5. Bokito the silverback gorilla

6. Amur leopard

7. Amur leopard

8. Amur leopard

9. Seagull

10. Duck

11. Yellow mongoose

12. Butterfly

13. Butterfly

14. Butterfly

15. Aquarium

16. Aquarium

17. Aquarium

As you might have noticed the large butterfly was wounded on the right wing.
Shame... It's such a beautiful animal.

I'm particularly happy with the Amur leopard shots.

You can view the complete set here: http://www.rvantwerpen.com/blog.php?post=112

C&C always welcome.

 

[pjaye]

These are wonderful. Love the prairie dogs. The leopard is a favorite too.

 

[IronMaskDuval]

Did you shoot those with a kodak disposable? Sheesh

 

[Judobreaker]

Yeah those prairie dogs are really cool. You can walk through their habitat on a specially made path where the ground comes up on the sides to about waist-height and that's where their tunnels surface. They walk around free there and you could touch them if you wanted to (although it has a warning they can bite).
This makes it quite easy to get on eye level with them and they're really curious too so they won't go underground the second you look at them.

Ps. If this was a Kodak disposable I'd love to handle a real camera... xD

 

[pjaye]

Oh I'd so pet them. We have a tiny zoo nearby that has very tame animals. I love going there.

 

[pjaye]

Is there a fence around the leopard? I'm assuming so but it's completely invisible in the pictures. Did you shoot over it? I have some adorable lemur pictures but the fence ruined it for me.

 

[Judobreaker]

Yes there's a fence around it, but this is actually through glass.
There are 2 viewing 'walls' with large windows in them on the sides of the habitat. They're always pretty dirty so first I have to find a decently clean part and then it's a matter of putting the lens against the glass to eliminate reflections. If the glass is clean enough you will hardly see it in the final image unless you view it at 100% (the sharpness will be slightly lower then without glass).
This method usually gets me better pictures then shooting through the fence because the fence holes are just too darn small and the wires too darn thick.
I also used this method on the gorilla.