Some animal shots (mostly birds) [12 images, ~2MB, 56k warning]

[Polygon]

Here are some I took on a recent trip to the zoo. Not much done to most of them generally except some level adjustments, sharpening, cropping and framing. Comments and critique very welcome.

1. Mother and son?

2. "Look, that guy behind the rock is photographing us"

3. I declare these guys/ladies/whatever officially as my new favourite type of bird

4. Came out a little grainy (want a f/2.8 zoom), but I kinda liked the pose

5. Even more grainy :-(

6. Just hanging around

7. "Watcha looking at, you're next"..
WARNING: Image contains half-eaten mice (or whatever). If this disturbs you, please don't click. You have been warned!
Image is here

8. "Watch out whom you're messing with." Also not too happy with the technical side, but liked the look of the duck.

9. Two friends taking a swim :sillysmi:

10. Elephants' breath in counter-light (yes, it was cold ;-))

11. A lot of ducks in a little place. Feeding time!

12. "Hey dude.."

After that my hands were freezing so much and I had to leave :er:. Hope you like them.

 

[doenoe]

awesome series

 

[LaFoto]

I like ALL of them!
Including the linked one ... I am not overly squeamish, so I dared click and could stand the sight. That is among your strongest of the entire series, I must say.

But I also like the elephant photo very, very much, and the duck-chaos at feeding time. That brought a smile to my face .

 

[Polygon]

Glad you like them, thanks for your comments.

@LaFoto:
Yeah I know the image isn't too extreme, but experience shows it's better to place a clear warning if there's a chance that someone might be disturbed. 99% of the people will look anyway.

I like the zoo very much. Prices are cheap (a ticket for a whole year is just 15&#8364 and they place no unlogical restrictions on hobby photographers (only flash is forbidden, which is very understandable). Must remember to take the 50mm f/1.8 next time and finally get a tripod. There were some cool animals in an "underearth"-house and some Urang-Utans but it was too dark to get a sharp picture using anything less than ISO 1600 (talk about grain).

 

[Antarctican]

Nice series. Great capture of the snowy owl and its amber coloured eyes. And the 'elephant breath' shot is really cool too

 

[LaFoto]

I like the zoo very much.

Dresden Zoo?

 

[Polygon]

Antartican: Thanks for your comment

LaFoto: Yes, that's Dresden Zoo.

 

[Raymond J Barlow]

great series, wonderful captures.. the shot of the elephants really cuaght my eye.. so cool, these animals look very well maintained.

 

[Polygon]

Thanks for the kind words Raymond.

BTW: One of the elephants is pregnant at the moment. So expect some shots with +4 bonus of cuteness in about a month