Philly Zoo - Day trip - Photo-op!

sirsloop

So I got bored yesterday and made a trip out to the philly zoo. I purchased a year membership for 50 bucks... and plan in taking penny there at least one or two times this year. I get to bring a guest for free and can park for free so its totally worth it. I'll also get discounted rates at other Zoos around the country... so when I travel to the Brevard Zoo next week... i should catch a break

I was the first one in the Zoo at 9:30. Penny couldn't make it cause she was working at the barn, so I went solo. The place was VERY quiet... even the tigers were still asleep at 9:40. Overall I had a REAL relaxing day. Pretty mch walked around the place twice and took my time at the areas with animals to get nice shots. Just about all of the african animals were put away minus a few birds and a few of the big cats. Anyways... the photos!!

I'm only going to post a few of the choice ones... the rest are here..

http://photos.tallmanphoto.com/gallery/2374842/

All of these shots were taken with a Canon Rebel XTi, 70-200 f/2.8L, optional 580ex flash, and most were with a Kenko 1.4x teleconverter

we'll start it out with the ol bald eagle. This shot wouldn't really be possible without a long(er) lens and a big aperture. This is shot right through a pretty tight cage...you can actually see the cage blurred out behind the bird Love the slr and f/2.8-f4



This guy is freaking cute... a red panda. I walked into the carnivore exhibit, he heard me, woke up, looked, then went back to sleep. The life of a zoo animal I suppose



Same exhibit... woke up the cat... moring stretch and yawn







The coloring on these little birds are amazing. The feathers are so fine, it almost looked like I shot picture out of focus.



The peac0cks were still out and walking around...even though it was 33 degrees and real windy





The zoo had an exhibit with carnivorous plants. One of them was the venus fly trap. On TV these are always portrayed as pretty large plants. They are actually REALLY small... like just a touch bigger than a real fly



They had an excellent snake building. They had everything from pythons, shown below, to vipers, king cobras, anacondas, boas... really cool snakes.



They also had a HUGE turtle that just had his little head above water. I thought this would be a neat shot with the reflection




I also had fun with my 10-22mm UWA.

This is a balloon they have tethered down outside at the entrance of the zoo...



I also drove up and down rt76 and stopped in at a few other landmarks.

The Philllies baseball stadium



The Eagles football stadium



I shot of downtown philly from rt76 west, on the east side of town



Philly also has this scenic road that travels along the river.


This is in the same location, behind a crew row house.



I tried to get down on the shore under the walt whitman bridge to get a shot, but its all commercial and US customs held land. All gates are manned and all of them say "photography prohibited on premesis". I pulled over and took a could shots of this NEAT ship... obviously on its last legs






On the way home I stopped on a rest stop on the turnpike to grab some coffee. As I walked out the sunset opened up with beautiful colors. This only lasts minutes at best... so here you have spectacular sunset coloring with a cell tower in there. I suppose its fitting for central NJ ;D (ok ok i'll admit I bumped up the colors a bit on this one )

cmason

Nice Shots, the red panda pic is especially nice.

Used to be a member of the Philly zoo back when I lived there, always alot of fun for us and the kids.

JWilbur26

wow...lived in philly for 2 years and never made it to the zoo. Thank you for filling me in as to what I missed. Love the shot of the panda and bird in the water. The panda almost looks like a stuffed animal you set up for a pose. Looks like the weather was good as well.

sirsloop

for january it was great!! It was about 33F, mostly clear skies, and a fairly brisk gusty wind. Nothing a couple layers, gloves, and a hat cant take care of

Stormdancing

Great shots sirsloop. When you are at Brevard, there is also the Central Florida Zoo not to far away in Sanford, Fl. That will be on your reciprocal zoo list also. Nice small zoo. It's where Jack Hanna got his start.

We made a recent trip to Florida, (not for pleasure) and managed to squeak out some time to take the boys to Central Florida Zoo. We had a great time there. I still haven't processed any pictures from there.

sirsloop

Stormdancing wrote:

Great shots sirsloop. When you are at Brevard, there is also the Central Florida Zoo not to far away in Sanford, Fl. That will be on your reciprocal zoo list also. Nice small zoo. It's where Jack Hanna got his start.

We made a recent trip to Florida, (not for pleasure) and managed to squeak out some time to take the boys to Central Florida Zoo. We had a great time there. I still haven't processed any pictures from there.

I heard from 3 different friends down in FL that the central fl zoo has taken a nose dive over the past few years. I like the animal list better there, but they all recommended that I make the trip out to Brevard. They said I would be disappointed at the sandord zoo.

JWilbur26

Brevard County Zoo
I happen to hail from Brevard county originally. They have put alot of effort into expanding the zoo and have redone it some over the past 5 years or so. If you are ever down that way, definitely check it out. Only about an hour or so from Orlando. Hit me up if you ever need directions!

Stormdancing

sirsloop wrote:

I heard from 3 different friends down in FL that the central fl zoo has taken a nose dive over the past few years. I like the animal list better there, but they all recommended that I make the trip out to Brevard. They said I would be disappointed at the sandord zoo.

Well after seeing your shots from the Philly Zoo, you probably would be. We didn't make it over to Brevard, even though I wanted too. I can't compare the two. Central Florida Zoo was nice for just an afternoon get away and to distract the kids. It had boardwalks set up and was a nice stroll. The cat cages made pics hard because they were so close to the wire. Hard to blur it. The cheetah was in an open enclosure were photos were a little easier. They also had quite a large collection of snakes to photograph.

Taking two 4 year olds to the zoo is not very condusive to fine photography anyway.

sirsloop

Stormdancing wrote:

Taking two 4 year olds to the zoo is not very condusive to fine photography anyway.

lol... thats called nature photography on the run.

S_Leeper

Those are some great shots....
But while many zoos do reciprocate not all do & some only partially...

The AZA has a nice repository of zoos around the country & their links.

http://www.aza.org/