Cathy’s Camera

With the lion cubs growing fast, I decided that I should go to the Wild Animal Park this morning to see the cubs and how they’ve changed in the few days since I’d last seen them.

Boy was I in for a treat. Today was the first day that the entire pride was together – Dad included!

It was amazing to watch him and the way the cubs would follow him around. Although it looks scary in the photo above, he seemed to just be walking around and talking.

Nikon D200 70-200vr+TC17E f6.7

A quick trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park today was more fun than a barrel of monkeys – it was two litters of lion cubs all romping around and wrestling with each other.

Photo taken with Nikon D200 70-200vr +TC17EII  f6.7 @340mm

These are two of the seven cubs at the Wild Animal Park. The seven cubs were born in November 2007 a few days apart. Their mothers, Mina and Oshana are sisters.

Photo taken with Nikon D200 80-400vr f8 @400mm

What a fantastic opportunity to shoot so many cubs all at once, and watching them play is definitely a rare treat. I’ll definitely be making a lot of trips there this spring.

Photo taken with Nikon D200 80-400vr f8 @400mm

I think that the gorillas can take a few lessons on posing from the meerkats. It seems like while at the meertkat enclosure the photo opportunities abound. Yet, take a walk over to the gorillas and what do you get? The backs of the gorillas. To get them in the light and facing remotely toward any camera seems next to impossible. With their dark dark faces I was wishing I could just pretty please get a little flash in there. Ah well, I’ll just have to make do with what I’ve got.

Photo taken with Nikon D200 80-400vr f5.3 @310mm

This gal could give posing lessons to the gorillas!

 
Photo taken with Nikon D200 80-400vr f5.6 @230mm

Don’t ask what this guy is doing!

Took a quick trip to the San Diego Wild Animal Park today to shoot the meerkats and the gorillas.

These two guys were into a grooming session when one of them got a little too rough. The interaction lasted only a moment and they were done and back to doing the typical Meerkat  watch out for preditors.

Photo taken with a Nikon D200, 80-400vr @160mm f5

While at the San Diego Zoo there is more to be seen than animals. The zoo is also a botanical garden with thousands of plant species, some quite rare and or endangered.  With spring coming just around the corner the flowers are going to be a sight to behold. Definitely worth a trip just for the plant life!

Photo taken with Nikon D200, 80-400vr @300mm f5.3

Photo taken with Nikon D200, 80-400vr @400mm f5.6

While walking through the monkey area of the San Diego Zoo, I was hoping to get some unobstructed shots of the monkeys. They have beautiful enclosures that have been totally redone. All of the enclosures that I saw have fencing/cable netting between the enclosures and the people. So – I did the next best thing – a shot of  feet complete with its texture and that of the cable netting.

Photo taken with Nikon D200, 80-400vr @260mm f8

Tomorrow – more pictures and flowers at the zoo – it’s not all animals!

Yup – caught this Meerkat with mud on his nose. He was busily digging away when I got to the exhibit. But he did manage to pose for my camera. I was testing out the Nikkor 80-400 vr f4.5-5.6

Photo taken with Nikon D200, 80-400vr @400mm f5.6

This guy was the only reptile that we saw in our close encounter. He’s about 3 years old and 3 feet long. He was cold to the touch and his feet were really quite soft.

Photo taken with Nikon D200, 70-200vr @200mm f5.6

The San Diego Zoo is an awesome place. The animals and the plants are incredible. I was a very fortunate person to get to go behind the scenes today and see animals up close an personal. Here’s one of the shots – a three year old Great Horned Owl.

Photo taken with Nikon D200, 18-200vr @200mm f8

While at the Wild Animal Park testing out a new lens, I was taking photos of the lions through the glass. As always happens, when the lions come close to the glass people appear out of nowhere. They somehow manage to get into the photos no matter how carefully one tries to avoid getting things like the edge of Aunt Maybel’s funky hat. Well, once in a while something happens totally unplanned, and in the end yields an image of wonderment.

This photo, taken of the lioness through the glass managed to snag the reflection of a child at the same time. This is the photo with the exception of downsizing for web – it is straight out of the camera.

Photo taken with Nikon D200, 70-200vr @195mm f4.8