September Calendar

September Calendar

The National Zoo

This month is a few shots from the Smithsonian Nation Zoo in Washington DC.   

The main photo is for Lori, as she does love Elephants. This zoo does as good as a job as any can for an animal in captivity, with create areas from the to walk around.

The Smaller photos are of the big cats, which are my favorite to photo, having printed a few of these in large format.

Great place to visit when your in DC, but not in the regular monument area, it is quite a walk, even from the closest Metro Station (Red Line), and parking is limited.

I was amazed at the difference the camera picked up in color from the elephant in the shadow verse the one in the sun. 

The elephant photo was shot on November 12th 2016. With my D7200 that I had at the time. Lens was a 200-500mm f/5.6 shot at 340mm f/9.0 at 1/600sec.     

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I like how the grass in the foreground, gives the effect of the tiger coming out of the forest.  he (or she) was shot on the same day at 11. Nice visiting the zoo in the late fall as the cool weather promotes the cats to be active later in the day. I used a telecoverter on the 200-500mm to achive a 700mm f/8.0 at 1/200sec.

The last is of the cheetah. They have a great exhibit, with lot of interactive (not with the cat) items, show how fast they are. They lay at the back of the exhibit where it is hard to get a good shot. Joan tolerated me standing for over 30 minutes, and blocked over anxious kids from hitting me or my tripod. another long shot at 700mm at f/8.0 and 1/250sec.