Travel Theme: Tempting

Sometimes when I am traveling, I am tempted to put my camera away.  Sometimes there  is a good reason for that, but honestly most of the time it is because I am tired.  I was just on the verge of putting my camera away the other day when a docent came up and told me I had to take this picture:

ISO 250 50mm 0ev f/6.3 1/125

He was right, so three cheers for the docents at the St. Louis Zoo!

I am on a break from my Photoshop class, so for this photo I just did some cropping and sharpening in Aperture.  Is this an award winning photo? No, but it is a nice snapshot of this Red Panda in the morning light.  If you go to the zoo, I would recommend going early to get the best morning light and to beat the crowds.

This Red Panda spends a lot of its time resting and roaming around near the back of her home.  I have few photos of her, something I have written about before here and here.

Do you talk to docents when you visit places like the zoo? We do, they tend to be very knowledgeable and passionate about their subject matter.  Have you ever had a moment like this, where you were about to put the camera away and someone told you not to?

This post was written in response to the theme tempting at Where’s My Backpack?

Cheers!

Panda on a Perch

A Red Panda in this case.  This panda definitely rates high on the “awww” scale, I think it is the fact that it’s fur looks so soft:

ISO 400 f/5.6 1/50 135mm

The toughest part of getting this photo, is actually being able to see the animal, it likes to hang out in remote parts of its enclosure.  Not a whole lot I can do about that.  I think next time, I will shoot in full manual mode, try to get the shutter speed a bit faster.  I am also thinking I should have tried a higher ISO.  I think I will also try getting a shot with the flash on, I’m thinking that might have helped fill in the darker parts of the panda’s fir.

Cheers!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Today

So the weekly photo challenge theme is “today” as in, take a photo of whatever you are doing today.  I am happy to announce that what I was doing today was proving that a red panda does actually live in the red panda exhibit at the zoo.  I was beginning to have my doubts.  But I have photographic proof!  It isn’t a great photo because I figured if I set up my tripod, and messed with the camera settings he/she would be gone.  So here is a “fully automatic” red panda:

ISO 400 135mm f/5.6 1/60

Cheers!