SF Zoo

While visiting my son and grandson in San Francisco, we went to the San Francisco zoo. Great fun! While the main attraction for my (almost) 4-year-old grandson wasn't so much the animals as the "Little Puffer" train, I did take the opportunity to photograph some of the animals and even some flowers as we walked along the various zoo paths to and from the "train station."

Here are some highlights.

Eagle Eye

Eagle Observer

Pretty as a Peacock

California Poppies

Zoo Path Adornments

This rhino is missing its horn, and that makes me sad. Apparently, in some cases, conservationists are preemptively cutting off rhino horns in an effort to actually save them from poachers. It's an impressive beast nonetheless: that is one huge head.

What's For Lunch?

Penguin Playtime

Little Puffer On the Way

Little Puffer Engine

Looking Sharp

This next photo is of a northern bald ibis.

Unique Flyer

All photos © 2022, all rights reserved.  Contact phil@philslens.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Animal Appreciation

Here are three animals in four photos for your enjoyment.

These first two images are of a very tiny spider I saw spinning a web and waiting patiently for prey on the railing of our deck. These are taken with my macro lens. I estimate its body is between 1/8" and 1/4" in length!

Tiny Spider 1

Tiny Spider 2

Here's a much much larger animal. This is Max, a neighbor's dog. He behaves like a human in a dog's body. He always "talks" to us when we visit with him. He vocalizes talking sounds without barking. He's one of the coolest dogs ever.

This is taken with my 12-40mm lens.

Max

We've been seeing a lot of rabbits lately. The old adage suggesting they multiply quickly seems a truism. Here's one grazing in our backyard.

This is taken with my telephoto lens from about 25 feet away. If you look closely you'll see that his/her ear has been split. Guess life is tough out in the wild.

Backyard Bunny

All photos © 2020, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Seven Different Animals

Noah's Ark this is not, but over time I do manage to take pictures of various animals. Amusingly, I'd picked this set of animal photos to share in this post, and only after making the selection did I realize that these happen to be seven different animals. Only one of them is a bird. I don't think you'll have any problem picking out which animal is a bird.

The first two photos were taken with my Panasonic ZS40 travel zoom.  Both of these were taken with a 35mm equivalent focal length of 720mm.  That's a lot of zoom!

Notice the Striped Colors All the Way Along This Snake's Skin

Turtles Always Seem to Be Basking in the Sun

The rest of these were taken with my Olympus gear.

Believe it or not, I took this picture through a glass window at a not-so-great angle.  I admit I removed a few glass reflections after the fact.  This critter was looking in on us at a local tech college where I was taking, of all things, a photography class.  The instructor took some shots of this visitor as well.

Checking Out the Classroom Offerings

Vertical Climbing Oficianado

The picture of this little fellow was taken from 45 feet away with my 60mm lens, and heavily cropped.

Crossing Front Paws

Can you count the well-camouflaged children in this photo?  Taken at 1/60 sec. at ISO 1600, also with my 60mm lens; about 50 ft. away:

Gobblers During a Family Stroll

Shirley Temple Hair?

All photos © 2015, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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