San Diego Wild Animal Park

anonymouscuban

Here's some shots from the Wild Animal Park from yesterday. It had been about 10 years since I last visited the place. Beautiful place.

I took these with my D300 and a Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 which I rented as I am interested in purchasing the lens. This is the longest lens I've ever shot with and it was quite a challenge at first to not get blur even with the VR. I also rented a 1.4x teleconverted. It gave me a bit more length but I noticed that a lot of the IQ of the pictures I took with it suffered a bit. Not sure if that's to be expected when using a teleconverter.

I'm still a newbie so I welcome all C&C.

Thanks,
Alex

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Netgarden

Well done! I like how you framed them too. My fav is the flamingos. Very pretty.
I'm trying to decide whether to take my friend from England to the SD zoo or the Wild Animal park. [1 and half hour drive for me] Hoping to see pandas though so may do the zoo.

SunGlo

Great shots Alex, especially the little giraffe.

It's been my experience that extenders tend to degrade IQ and camera perfomance somewhat depending on the camera, lens, and settings. Having said that, it's still a lot better then spending a bundle on a long lens that you only use once in a while.

Have fun,

Phil

dlplumer

Good job Alex. I am partial to baby rhinos

anonymouscuban

Netgarden wrote:

Well done! I like how you framed them too. My fav is the flamingos. Very pretty.
I'm trying to decide whether to take my friend from England to the SD zoo or the Wild Animal park. [1 and half hour drive for me] Hoping to see pandas though so may do the zoo.

Thanks! I was very happy with the shots I took but I am still learning so I wanted some other opinions. I took several shots of the flamigos but this was my favorite. Boy do they smell though!!

I really enjoyed the Wild Animal Park. The place is huge and it's nice to have the animals in large enclosures, very natural setting. My wife and I planned to also visit the Zoo but we ended up spending the entire day at the Park. Unfortunately, we have four dogs so we needed to come home or else we'd have stayed in SD overnight and did the Zoo today. I did speak to a guy there visiting from Europe and he mentioned that he was amazed by the Park because of the natural setting of the enclosures... very different he said than Zoos in Europe.

BTW, you should consider purchasing a membership either way. It was $10 more total for the both of us for a year than if we just bought a day pass and it's tax deductible. Also, you can visit either park and it includes bonuses like free tram rides and discounts at the stores.

SunGlo wrote:

Great shots Alex, especially the little giraffe.

It's been my experience that extenders tend to degrade IQ and camera perfomance somewhat depending on the camera, lens, and settings. Having said that, it's still a lot better then spending a bundle on a long lens that you only use once in a while.

Have fun,

Phil

They had a costume contest and I could not resist taking the shot of this cutie.

It was my first time using one and I'm not too happy with the results. They did do the job of giving me that little boost in length so I can't complain. I do wish I would have had a longer lens though... maybe up to a 400mm for some tighter shots. Which brings me to my current dilemma... I want a long lens but I don't know which one to get since I know I won't use it all the time???

dlplumer wrote:

Good job Alex. I am partial to baby rhinos

Thanks! Yeah... these guys were a mom and baby Black Rhino. They also had white rhinos but they were much to far for me to get a decent shot, even with the TC on the lens.

theNOIZ

Wild Animal Park Pics
Alex,

It looks like your planning and homework paid off!

Congrats on a great set of photos.

JenGrace

All of the pictures are really good! Nice and sharp. Even with all those exotic animals though, my favorite is that second shot of the ubiquitous mallard.

anonymouscuban

theNOIZ wrote:

Alex,

It looks like your planning and homework paid off!

Congrats on a great set of photos.

Yes it did. Thanks to everyone who gave me advice. If not for you all, I would not have brought along my tripod which would have been a huge mistake.

anonymouscuban

JenGrace wrote:

All of the pictures are really good! Nice and sharp. Even with all those exotic animals though, my favorite is that second shot of the ubiquitous mallard.

Thanks JenGrace. I've checked out your SmugMug Albums before I love your shots. You make everyday items look awesome.

JenGrace

Thanks so much!