The Zoo… and other blogs — part I

Eddie & I finally made our planned trip to the Bronx Zoo last Thursday. We hadn't been there since the kids were — well, kids! And that was a long time ago. The zoo has actually become a wildlife park, and most animals live in natural habitats instead of behind bars. It makes it much more difficult to get good photos, but it is so much better for the animals. I had my Nikkor 70–300mm VR lens on the camera the entire time.


This photo of a group of NYALA (a species of South African antalope) was taken at f/8, 250 of a second with the lens zoomed to 240mm.

On to another subject…I've been promising some links to blogs that you might find of interest. Expand this post for the first installment.

The blogs I read regularly are divided into several categories. A few are just about photography and photographic equipment, several deal with photography and Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom, and others are pretty difficult to categorize.

Three excellent photography blogs are:

1. DIGITAL PROTALK — David Ziser is a wedding photographer, but the tips he shares are valuable for all photographers.
2. STROBIST — STOBIST is a site devoted to using off-camera flash. I'm not really sure why I have it on my list. 99% of my photography is natural light, and I don't own an off-camera flash. That being said, anyone using a strobe should check out this blog.
3. MOOSE PETERSON — Moose Peterson is a wild life photographer and teacher. He runs photography seminar in all sorts of amazing locales, and the photos he posts on his blog are phenomenal. (He wouldn't be posting photos taken at the Bronx Zoo!) His most recent post, July 8, is a series of grizzly bears in Alaska — where I think he is now. According to the blog, Moose, his wife and son camped next to where the bears live, and I gather the photographs are for a book. Pretty amazing!

We are going down to North Carolina for a few days celebrate my mother's 85th birthday. I'll list some more blogs when I can next post, probably over the weekend.