"Wildlife" - San Diego Wild Animal Park

BlackwoodBlackwood Registered Users Posts: 313 Major grins
edited December 27, 2010 in Wildlife
Went out for a short (~2 hr) stroll around the Wild Animal Park (ahem, San Diego Zoo Safari Park) yesterday. Not too crowded, was nice.

I brought out my 70-300DO lens for maybe the fourth time in the 3+ years I've had it. My manual focus technique could use some work, and since I shot quite a few frames through wire mesh fencing, I just left it on manual the whole time.

I only came home with about 6 keepers, but it was fun.

The obligatory baby elephant with family shot. For some reason, they always look better in B&W to me:
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Cute little owl I've yet to identify:
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This condor was showing off his wingspan, but was halfway obscured by a column. I sat watching him hoping he'd hop into full view. Instead he took wing. It's slightly OOF and blurred, but oh well, I'm not selling it:
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These three rhinos were just lazing about, closer to the walkway than I've ever seen them:
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This lion was mostly sleeping, but every once in a while put his head up and checked things out. There was guy set up in front of the exhibit with a 600mm on a 1D, and every time he glanced our way he fired off what sounded like 20 frames. I saw some of them on his screen. Pretty impressive.
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And finally, I was surprised to see Bald Eagles in captivity. I guess they only take them in when they're injured. These were fairly obscured by fence, and I tried as best as I could to hide it with a shallow DOF. Then I did some post work (the darkened regions and the crop) to hide what was left (along with some dodging on his eyes and crown).
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Comments are welcome, particularly about the eagle. Does it look overdone?

Thanks for looking.

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