Tiger

Yesterday, I went to The Sacramento Zoo to see their new collection of enormous animatronic dinosaurs. While the exhibit was fantastic, I struggled hard with my camera. I chose to bring the wrong lens, forgot my glasses, couldn’t get my settings right for anything, and ended up with a lot of bad photos. I’m talking real stinkers.

I’m sharing the ones I sort of liked, as a marker in my journey. These show what I was trying to do: get more varied shots, focus on depth, and play with colors. You’ll see a lot of purposeful blur and my attempts at creative framing. I’ve got a lot of shoots planned in the future, and I suppose each click, good or bad, is a step in my journey.

Let me know if you have a favorite, and if you’re in Sacramento, the dinosaurs are there until October. I know I’ll be headed back again!

These were taken with my Olympus E-M1 MarkII, using a 40-150mm lens and edited with Lightroom Classic.

My daughter and I visited the West Coast Game Park Safari located in Bandon, Oregon. While many people rave about this place, what I saw concerned me. Some of the animals seemed distressed or uncared for. While I appreciated being able to see them so close, I couldn’t help but wonder about the history of the animals and the park.

Before leaving I asked about the lovely chimpanzee named Daphne (the first picture below), but they couldn’t tell me anything about her. All questions were answered with “read the signs,” which were faded and had no information about where the animals originated from.

Today I did a little research before posting these photos and it seems the park has been listed on Peta’s list of Highway Hellholes and has received many citations for animal neglect. I wish I was wrong, but I don’t think this is a good place for animals and I can’t recommend it. However, I still wanted to share my favorite photos of these beautiful animal ambassadors. They deserve better.