"We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

Hey Surfers,

Sorry about the lack of a post last week, I just fancied a little break from the blog, but now I'm back (aren't you so glad?)

I was able to try my hand at some wildlife photography last week. I met up with some friends from University and spent the day at London Zoo! I was fortunate enough that one of our party has the same camera as I do, but has much more experience using it, so I was able to learn quite a bit.

Our first stop was the insect house which was incredibly humid. One of the attractions of this enclosure are the ants which are roaming along a rope bridge out in the open. I was able to get up close and snap this shot of one of them, I hope the flash didn't blind him...

After looking around for a short while, and taking the opportunity to pet a cockroach, we decided to check out the amphibians.

It was difficult to get pictures in this area as it was dark and we weren't allowed to use the flash; also all of the animals were in tanks so there were reflections to deal with. I did, however, get a few good shots. :)

In this picture the reflection actually worked in my favor, the glow really enhances the image, somehow.

By this point we decided to have a look at some slightly larger animals so we left the dark, dankness of the amphibians and went out into the sunlight. 

I love the vibrancy in this picture.

Slightly disappointed with this shot, the reflection on the glass isn't too noticeable but it means I didn't get the clarity that I wanted. My friend however did get some amazing pictures of this guy, jealous -_-

We had a quick lunch of fish and chips and enjoyed the surprisingly hot weather for a while before setting off to tackle the rest of the grounds.

The Aquarium and Reptile house were our next stops. We were able to play spot the snake as many of them were hiding or asleep. This chameleon, however, was being rebellious; instead of living up to its nature of being a master of disguise he was out in the open and ready for his close up!

"I know, I'm fabulous"

When taking this picture my friend begged me not to say the fish looked like Nemo, truly begged. 

The request was ignored... :)

We had to go across the road to see the African mammals, the zoo is really quite large. This area housed pygmy hippos, zebras and an okapi but I was particularly impressed by the giraffes.

There is a viewing platform to see the giraffes up close, though I did have to use my zoom a little. 

The day was getting away from us and before we realised it was 5.00pm.  The zoo closed at 6.30pm but there were still things we wanted to see and other things we wanted to re visit, mainly to see if they had woken up yet.

Close by was the Rainforest animal enclosure. There wasn't much light in this area and my pictures kept blurring. This is another enclosure where the animals aren't behind glass and at one point a minuscule monkey came right over to me. He was literally inches away and so comfortable around us, I found he was quite happy to pose for me. 

I was thrilled with the pictures, even though the first lot did blur which I was very annoyed about. One of my  friends pointed out to me that it's better to experience things first hand rather than through a camera lens; a very good point but I am glad to have this as a memory :)

We visited the meerkats as one of our final animals, though we did do a last loop through to try and get a shot of the lions...they hadn't moved in six hours unfortunately.

The meerkats were hilarious and very quick on their feet so it proved to be a challenge to get a good picture. They decided that we weren't going to hunt them eventually and calmed down so we got some nice shots. 

"What is Alan doing up there?"

We eventually headed home, after a quick visit to the gift shop. It was a long walk through Regents Park to get to the tube as we all had aching feet. My pedometer showed that we had walked just over ten miles! I was happy to get on the train and rest.

The zoo was an brilliant place to take pictures, even if you do have to be inventive to avoid the glass reflections, and I definitely recommend going there if you get a chance.

Until next week,

Love E

"That tiger has nothing on me"

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