Zoo Day Fun in Sacramento!

Do you love to shoot animals or dream of going on safari some day? You can get in some practice and have a great time in the process at your local zoo!

  This week was a fun experience for me with MIke’s Camera in Sacramento with their three-part Zoo Experience! It is a three part class series: Thursday evening is a 2-hour lecture where we learned how to get the best animal images and how to photograph animals through the bars of cages without seeing them too! Then on Sunday, everyone goes to the Zoo before it opens (and when the animals are fresh and active in the cool morning) and have a private showing of four amazing birds in the amphitheater. Then we have a good 3+ hours to prowl around and photograph all that there is to offer. The final segment is held at the store again on a Tuesday evening where Mikes prints up a 12×18, (matted, even!) of each person’s best image to share and display. Each person goes home with their free print!

The format is brilliant and very enjoyable! A great way to learn and share!

Here’s a few images we took this week at the Zoo– more to post after tonight when we do the Show and Tell!  🙂 Tech info: All of these were taken with the Panasonic Lumix G9, and all but the amphitheater shot were taken with the 35-100mm 2.8 lens.

We started off with the Flamingo pond and the new beautiful walkway through the middle of it and the nice viewing platform. The early morning light was pretty bright but not hot yet. Lots of the flamingos were already doing their morning yoga and naps in the sun.

About 9 am we gathered over at the amphitheater and got to photograph Charlie, the Great Horned Owl, Saguaro, the Harris Hawk, Robby, the Eclectus Parrot and Julio, the Blue and Gold Macaw, expertly handled by Mike, the bird handler.

Of course the set (stage backdrop) is painted to look like backgrounds off in the distance, so its an easy feat to capture great images from these well-behaved birds. Charlie, the owl was pretty aloof but apparently is a poser for iPhone pics by Mike, his trainer. I’m thinking Saguaro, the Harris Hawk has had his portrait taken a few times too! #whataposer! 

[KGVID]http://www.suzettesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Poser-Video-1000396-final.mp4[/KGVID]

 

Julio, the huge Macaw is also well trained to stretch up his wings. In the video (next) you can see him stretch to his full height of about 4 feet with tail included! #verticalvideo!

video link: https://youtu.be/VGP62INWCKQ

 

After our private introduction to the four birds, we explored the zoo, getting great images of the red pandas, giraffes, feeding zebras, a few small monkeys and of course, the reptile center! It was getting toward noon and crazy busy with the kiddos (but the AC was awesome at the end of the zoo hike) so I didn’t take too many images in there. (besides the fact that Im not that fond of snakes. Lizards are cool though!)

My favorites were the giraffes, probably! And I love the moment the male giraffe looked straight at me when I was filming (see video above). I did take a few images full length, (ignoring the background building and appreciating the light clean backdrop) with the intention of cutting him out and compositing with another scene in photoshop!

Tonight is the Show and Tell, so I will make a new post later about how it turns out, and share some of the best of the best!

#zooday #mymikescamera #saczoo #suzettesays #walkonthewildside @sacramentozoo

#LumixG9 #LumixUSAambassador