I recently had to be in Chicago, and decided to make a day out of it so I showed up early and went to Lincoln Park Zoo. As an avid zoo shooter I'd been wanting to check it out, but I'm just not that Chicago savvy, I tend to avoid the big city whenever I can because I plain dislike big cities. I'm a child of the suburbs.
But I did the research and almost figured out how the bus system works in Chicago. I still don't understand it, but I managed to get where I needed to go.
The zoo itself was an interesting change from my standard zoo, Brookfield. As a city zoo it's free. It got a bad reputation a few years ago because of a few animal deaths, but I was never certain if the reputation was deserved or if it was just some bad luck followed up by the usual pressure from radical animal rights groups that fail to see the big picture.
I knew I had to go when I found out how many feline species they have. A new (for me) leopard species, a Pallas' Cat, a serval, a jaguar, a cougar (one of which was recently shot and killed in the city, something that shocked the heck out of me, I still can't believe a cougar infiltrated Chicago, not just that it COULD but that it would want to), plus my old favorite the snow leopard.
Unfortunately I never saw the Pallas' Cat come out into the open, a shame because I really wanted to see that unique looking animal, it has a heavy, scruffy coat that makes it look like a feline barbarian. I never found the jaguar or serval (their building may have been closed), and the cougar was in a poor enclosure for photography. Just the same I got some outstanding stuff, and plan to go back for more. I want that Pallas' Cat, even if the enclosure also looks like another bad one for photography (a mesh barrier that's too far away to blur it with shallow DOF).
I've included a picture of a snowy owl, a beautiful bird that reminds me of the Great Owl character from The Secret of Nimh (in a way it walked in a similar fashion), a dwarf caiman, and perhaps one of my better leopard pictures of all time, a picture of what may be either an Afghani Leopard or an Iranian leopard. The website says Iranian, the sign in the zoo says Afghani. Anyway, as you can see it was one of the most natural looking pictures I've been able to get of any leopard species. I'm shooting through what I think was a barred fence kind of like chain link but with somewhat thicker metal and a square pattern, but I was able to get close enough that at F4 the near fence almost completely dissolved. The only remaining hint of the fence is an interesting effect you can see in the bokeh, or blurred background. Look just to the ride of the leopard, you can see a weird sort of interference effect running vertically. It's present elsewhere, both vertical and horizontal lines. That's the remnants of the barrier I was shooting through.
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But I did the research and almost figured out how the bus system works in Chicago. I still don't understand it, but I managed to get where I needed to go.
The zoo itself was an interesting change from my standard zoo, Brookfield. As a city zoo it's free. It got a bad reputation a few years ago because of a few animal deaths, but I was never certain if the reputation was deserved or if it was just some bad luck followed up by the usual pressure from radical animal rights groups that fail to see the big picture.
I knew I had to go when I found out how many feline species they have. A new (for me) leopard species, a Pallas' Cat, a serval, a jaguar, a cougar (one of which was recently shot and killed in the city, something that shocked the heck out of me, I still can't believe a cougar infiltrated Chicago, not just that it COULD but that it would want to), plus my old favorite the snow leopard.
Unfortunately I never saw the Pallas' Cat come out into the open, a shame because I really wanted to see that unique looking animal, it has a heavy, scruffy coat that makes it look like a feline barbarian. I never found the jaguar or serval (their building may have been closed), and the cougar was in a poor enclosure for photography. Just the same I got some outstanding stuff, and plan to go back for more. I want that Pallas' Cat, even if the enclosure also looks like another bad one for photography (a mesh barrier that's too far away to blur it with shallow DOF).
I've included a picture of a snowy owl, a beautiful bird that reminds me of the Great Owl character from The Secret of Nimh (in a way it walked in a similar fashion), a dwarf caiman, and perhaps one of my better leopard pictures of all time, a picture of what may be either an Afghani Leopard or an Iranian leopard. The website says Iranian, the sign in the zoo says Afghani. Anyway, as you can see it was one of the most natural looking pictures I've been able to get of any leopard species. I'm shooting through what I think was a barred fence kind of like chain link but with somewhat thicker metal and a square pattern, but I was able to get close enough that at F4 the near fence almost completely dissolved. The only remaining hint of the fence is an interesting effect you can see in the bokeh, or blurred background. Look just to the ride of the leopard, you can see a weird sort of interference effect running vertically. It's present elsewhere, both vertical and horizontal lines. That's the remnants of the barrier I was shooting through.
[This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]
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thinking the glass...anyway guess "safety" comes before "photography" at zoos
