So Good to Be Back to the Zoo

Aside from the poor crumbling roads and paths, it was really good to get back to the zoo for the first time this year. The best part about it was going with my best friend and his family and my wife. I am looking forward to a great season of animals and flowers and am going to try to take the time to let the camera sit around my neck for a few minutes and appreciate what I am seeing instead of just shooting the whole time. That said, when I am setting up lights for a flower photo I do have time to appreciate my surroundings.

Sometimes it is difficult to remember the size and wildness of these huge creatures just one small fence away from us. Had we seen these from a vehicle in Jasper a few summers ago it would have been more of a flight response that sitting here watching these hulks almost smiling at us.

"Soft kitty,
Warm kitty,
Little ball of fur.…"

No, I have never had the opportunity to shoot at the zoo at night. What an experience that I would be. I would be most grateful for the fences then and would always be looking over my shoulder.

The photo of this lynx was taken in broad daylight but a few tweaks to the exposure and white balance gave it more of a moonlit luck. Not unlike my albino python photo from Reptile World.

This bison calf was born just a few days prior. Amazing how quickly they are so independent and happy to be not a small distance away from their mothers just relaxing in the cool mud and manure.

I was impressed that both Fox's were out and very active when we were there. It must have been the comfortably cool temperature. The swift foxes, pictured above, had spotted something that we could not identify and were running back and forth at the front of their habitat looking for a way out.

The red fox could be found in its usual spot below the seeder.

I am looking forward to getting back to the zoo on a weekday when it will be a little bit quieter. It was not busy but if you are the people the more relaxing I find it and the better the photos I typically get.

I fear that this year a popular route for a friend and I to wheel, from the SaskTel sports center to the forestry farm will be off limits as the pedestrian path is always soft and muddy and significant portions of the road we used to go on have been turned to course crushed rock and gravel; not wheelchair friendly. I hope that there are some reasonable repair plans in the budget this year. I don't enjoy seeing one of my favorite places deteriorating like that.