Auckland Zoo and New lens

I've been in Blenheim for three years now.  It's gone really quickly.  Every time I get back to Auckland, I try to go to the Auckland Zoo, as its the one place I do miss.  There are no zoo's down here, and it's such a great way to practise photography, and it's so pleasant walking around seeing the animal and birdlife.

However, in the 3 years I've been in Auckland with my camera, it's rained.  And the Zoo was out of the question each time because of it.

So last week, it's summer, we're in drought, it's really unlikely to rain - so a trip to the zoo was planned with my friend Bron.  As we left to go, it started.... raining!  By the time we got to the zoo it was raining hard.  Bron had an umbrella fortunately so I was able to use my new Sigma 120-400mm lens with the umbrella shielding it.

So I got a few images of wet straggly animals before it fined up...  Wet bird...

Wet Tortoise...

Wet Spider Monkeys.  This one is saying 'OMG - Look at the state of you to his mate underneath..

Who is having a bad hair day after all the rain.

And this one is the Thinker...

As we walked to the next exhibit, the sun came out, and I saw this leaf on the ground, with the sun shining through, giving a lovely reflection on the concrete.  Bron was quick to point out that I'm nuts - I pay $25 to go to the Zoo and I take photos of dead leaves...

The Golden Lion Tamrin was out enjoying the sun..

And all the lemurs were in this pose - I'm sure they were trying to dry themselves out.

The Orangutans in the Auckland Zoo, love covering themselves up in sheets and blankets.  I thought this particularly looked like the Orangautan had perhaps evolved, embraced religion, and now wears a burkha!  There IS an orangutan underneath that blue sheet!

The main reason I wanted to visit the Auckland Zoo was their new Rainforest Aviary.  It had been upgraded about 3 years prior, but hadn't quite opened before I moved down here.  I was well rewarded by this Kea...  The Kea is New Zealand's' Mountain Parrot and are in decline.  They are stunningly beautiful, but very cheeky birds. Cars have had all the rubber stripped away from their windshields while the owners were skiing by these birds!

The Kereru - or NZ Wood Pigeon.  I was taking the photo of the nursery web spider when this bird came flying up at us.  I thought it was going to land on my lens or head.  It landed right next to my arm and proceeded to take much interest in the chocolate bar I was eating!

This spider was as big as my hand - massive, had never seen one so big in NZ before!

Here's another shot of the Wood Pigeon.  I had to take a few photos on my cellphone as he was too close to me to use the big lens.

He was also intrigued with Bron.  But I think he could see himself reflected in her glasses!

Onto the little blue Penguin.  You can see these little penguins swimming around our coastline quite often.  This one has got an injury and only one fin.  

So it can only swim around in circles!

Love watching the sealions swim past...

Then the Baboon family.  These animals are really shy and don't look up at the humans watching them. In fact they often turn their back on us.  I don't blame them really.  I'd hate to be gawked at all day..

One last shot of the giraffe before heading back home.  All these images were handheld and taken with the 120-400mm Sigma APO lens.  I'm really pleased with the quality this ne lens is giving.

Next Zoo I'll be visiting with be the Singapore one at the end of May. And yes - I'll be taking my big lens (big boy) with me :)

In Camera Fun - Lindis Pass

Still on Day 5 of our Tekapo trip 3 months ago now.  Where has the time gone?  It's 2013, only 9 months until Christmas (in case anyone needed to know that!)  Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

I love doing different types of photography as you know - I go all over the place, from macro, to landscapes, to artistic textures which drive the purists mad, and occasionally abstracts or impressionism.  I love doing this in camera, rather than in photoshop, although they can be done both ways.

While I was in the Lindis Pass photographing those gorgeous Lupins, I had taken my fill of images and I was waiting for Liz and Emily to finish up.  So started experimenting with different in-camera action shots.  

Firstly, I stuck my camera on AV, but upped the aperture to make sure that the image was going to take a bit longer to expose.  Then I started taking the images, but moving the camera in different directions.

The first from left to right.  I imagine this is what the river sees as it rushes past the Lupins...

Then I used the moved the zoom on my lens at the same time as pushing the shutter.  This takes a couple of tries to get right.

Then up and down.  I quite like this as it's caught the willow tree on the river bank surrounded by the Lupins...

A little diagonal...

And  love this one as you can actually see the Lupins quite clearly.  It almost reminds me of a Monet painting...

Alongside the river bank again...

 More diagonal...

This is another one of my favourites.  It almost looks like the Lupins have been twisted into candy bars...

This is another good one - as it has a clear focus point, yet is still impressionist.  I might use this in a competition a bit later on.

I had so much fun doing this.  It's really worth playing around with so give it a go.  Link me to some of yours as well - I would love to see them.  Bear in mind - that you throw away a lot of images in the process, but that's the beauty of digital photography!

Photography WordArt

I asked everyone of my friends on Facebook, and fellow photographers, what words came to mind when they heard the word photography.  This is the result of that experiment.  I played around with different layouts and colours and these are the best.  I've made T-Shirts out of them, and I'm trying to figure out which one I'm going to have...  They also look great on Canvas and would make great gifts for those who are obsessed keen on photography like myself!

#1 View/Buy on Redbubble

#2 View/Buy on Redbubble

#3 View/Buy on Redbubble

#4 View/Buy on Redbubble

#5 View/Buy on Redbubble

#6 View/Buy on Redbubble

#7 View/Buy on Redbubble

#8 View/Buy on Redbubble

The Sex Lives of Butterflies

Following on from my last blogpost about learning how the Bees get their pollen from the Lupin Flowers, I came across this scene of two butterflies trying to mate. Not that I'm a pervert or anything.

Butterflies fly extremely fast and all over the place. To get these images I had to put my camera on continuous burst mode. These shots aren't in the order they were taken, the male would fly in and out and in and out, and around, up down in a matter of milliseconds. However I put them in order to show a sequence only.

Incoming.....

The male is now 'presenting' himself to the female! I thought this was the other way around, but on googling it appears I was wrong. Isn't Google great! One can even learn about the sex lives of Butterflies there!

This is as near as they got mating for the day - thank goodness. Don't know whether I could have stood the heat!

They then flew off in a butterfly dance together and I walked on to leave them to it! According to Google, had I stuck around, I might have seen them in the act. I'll remember that for next time!