Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

January 29, 2008

Santa Ana Zoo PhotoBlog and Film Fest Friday

If you read my last post, you know that I'm back at school and have resumed classes. Hence, my winter break is over. Not that that's all that terrible, actually. The break was fairly uneventful, with the exception of having my wisdom teeth removed. However, there was also something that occurred the day before my oral surgery, and that was a trip to the local Santa Ana Zoo. A friend from school received a camera for Christmas that was very similar to mine and wanted to embark on a photo excursion. Accordingly, we chose the Santa Ana Zoo.

Unfortunately, since most of the animals were in full enclosures, they could not be photographed without some sort of cage or fence getting in the way, and many of my shots have chain links in them. Even so, I was able to take a fair amount of pictures, and those that turned out well I will share with you here.

I know we're supposed to photograph animals at the zoo, but I liked the shot of this plant.


If you read any of my Wild Animal Park posts, you probably know that I love waterfowl.


I love plants like this. My photo partner hates them.


It's not an animal or plant, but I liked this jeep a lot.


This emu came right up to us.


But then he became shy.


We took quite a few monkey pictures, but most of them didn't turn out to well because of the cages.


So we got lots of parrot pictures instead.



These squirrel monkeys were fun.


Cactus!


I really like the narrow-angle lens affect I achieved in this picture.


So this porcupine isn't terribly exciting, but he made my day.



Llamas!


Is your mama a llama?


After wandering around for a bit, we stumbled across this cool aviary. Normally you go to an aviary for the birds, but I was there for the plants...
..

...such as this interesting specimen...


...and this fern.


These berries were kinda cool.


I like ancient ruins.


That's my photographer friend.


Tree canopy!


This rabbit was HUGE!


Hi!


Pigs are cool.


Pansies!

And with the pansies, we conclude.

But we're not done yet! It's Friday! And you know what that means!
This week's feature is a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon called Long-Haired Hare.
This film is rated G by ME. It's Bugs Bunny!



That's all folks! Sorry this post was late, but I had a busy day. School you know.

S'long for now!
T.H. Excellence

November 09, 2007

Wild Animal Park PhotoBlog! - Part II

At last, here it is: Part Dos of the Wild Animal Park PhotoBlog! We left off with, what, the elephants?

Okay, so after the elephants the rest of the group went back to the central part of the park while me and my dad went to go see the tigers.

On the way we saw some more giraffes.


See the tiger? Yeah, neither could we. That camoflage works too dang well.


We both got a good laugh out of this sign. As if the tigers were only going to bite your finger!

So after we recovered from our disappointment with the tigers, me and Dad went up to this place called Condor Ridge, which features condors as well as various other North American critters. Unfortunately, most of the critters didn't photograph well because the sun was reflecting off of the mesh cages. However, the area was very scenic and I got some nice atmosphere shots.

This waterfall photographed nicely.




This place has Disneyland beat for theming. Everything's real!


Landscape shot!


I like this one.


At this point we were closer to the heart of Condor Ridge, as indicated by all the cacti.



And then we saw it - the magnificent California condor in all its glory.


It's a shame that these birds are endangered, but at the same time it's wonderful that the Wild Animal Park is making an effort to bring them back.


After Condor Ridge, Dad and I decided to go check out some gardens in the upper area of park. We spotted this pond on the way, and we thought it was so beautiful that we absolutely had to take pictures.






Credit for this shot goes to my dad.


This was the Baja desert section, which was pretty much at the top end of the park.



I like the way the framing turned out on this one.


Another landscape shot.


So after the desert we wanted to go see the bonsai gardens. Maybe you can't tell from the picture, but the bonsai all looked a lot like cactus.


Dramatic angle!


At this point we were tired and decided to find the rest of our group. On the way I saw a ton of nice flowers.






At last we reached the hub of the park and, after purchasing a cherry ICEE, discovered the rest of the group was watching the meerkats.




What are you looking for?


Suddenly, I was distracted from the meerkats by something else...

DUCKS!!!


Ooh! Sitting ducks. Literally.


I like waterfowl, but that doesn't mean I'll drink dirty liquids.




At that moment, my mom directed my attention to a much bigger pond nearby.

My camera directed its attention to these geese.







I could take pictures like this all day.



Face it, man. She dumped you.


What are you all looking at?


Oh, her.




Pelicans=Awesome!




As much as I was enjoying the pond activity, I had to pull myself away to attend the bird show with the group.

Before we reached the bird show, however, we encountered these nifty gorillas.



Bachelors.


After the gorillas, we quickly reached the bird show (which was cleverly titled "Frequent Flyers"). Here's an establishing shot.


The show began with a variety of birds flying about the ampitheater. Unfortunately, my camera's slow reaction time made it difficult to take good pictures. This shot didn't turn out so good.


I guess this one turned out all right.



That's a really big owl on that stump.


This parrot was cool. He did stand-up comedy. Sort of.


This shot would have been even more awesome if it hadn't been so blurry. And maybe if the condor had been a bit more in center frame. Oh well.


And we'll conclude the show and the post with these hawk brothers.
Hope you all enjoyed this update. Part III is coming up soon, as well as some new PhotoBlog pics and a Downtown Disney post. If you liked the pics, don't forget to comment!

Stay posted for the Final Chapter...
T.H. Excellence