Just another Saturday afternoon at the zoo...

I'll let the pictures talk this time.

Von Zoo 7.2.09

Von Zoo 7.2.09

Von Zoo 7.2.09

Von Zoo 7.2.09

Von Zoo 7.2.09

Von Zoo 7.2.09

Von Zoo 7.2.09

At the zoo

Ok, it's been already three weeks now that I attended a foto-class at the zoo in Zurich. But I just focused on other things these three weeks. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag right now, since things are still in the making.

The course was actually really interesting, though my camera didn't play along. The teacher, a well-known animal-photographer in Switzerland, lent me one of his lenses, a 70-200mm F2.8 VR. But my camera wasn't able to focus correctly with that lens, and so all pictures I did with this one got blurred. Nonetheless I'm convinced that this is probably one of the next lenses I'll get for my camera - if I get to save enough money, since it costs about as much as the D300 itself... But next will definitely be a decent macro-lens. :)

But here you go: One of Masoala's giant turtles, taken with my own 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 VRII. The limited aperture-setting leads to slight motion-blur even though VRII is doing a very good job. You may not see it: That thing is about 1m long, far more than 150kg and close to 100 year old! I like the mirror-effect on the water pretty much... :)

Masoala in Zurich / Introducing a new toy

A zoo can be a very sad place. All the animals locked up in cages not bigger than a couple of telephone-cells – for those who still remember what a telephone-cell is. The zoo in Zurich had to deal with a considerable loss of visitors probably due to the lack of modernisation of its facilities. So they came up with a completely new idea: Why not build a hall as big as two ice-hockey stadiums and plant rain-forest in there? All the animals that live in such a rain-forest should also live in that hall, and the visitors can walk through the hall on walk-ways and see the animals without glass or metal bars in between. Of course some animals were considered too dangerous for such an exhibition, so no tigers, poisonous snakes and other ‘fierce creatures’ were let in the hall. The whole project is called ‘Masoala’, as is the name of the rain-forest in Madagascar. See some impressions here...

Chameleon catching a fly

Gecko posing for the picture

Unknown bird - there are hundreds of these orange things!!!

Chameleon stalking

With this post I’m also introducing a new toy of mine. Yes, I did it: I bought the brand new Nikon D300. Although it's a rather expensive camera, I think it's worth each penny. It took me some time to get familiar with it, but now, after almost a month, I know what the main menues are - of course I still haven't tested all the 400 or so sub-menues... See sample-pictures here.

Sparrow greeting a snail

Dragon-head flower - can't remember the correct name...

Cherry-tree