In the last year in a half I have been looking for a lens to extend my bag of equipment, a 500mm.  It’s a beautiful lens to have and it’s been difficult to find one.  I didn’t want to spend more money then I had to, especially when the economy is the way it is.  I’m sure things will get better as time goes by but as an artist you try not to spend to much money and concentrate more on your art. The art of photography doesn’t come cheap.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is sadly mistaken.  In my search for this lens I could have just decided to buy it new, but that would have meant taking out a small loan.  Something I was not willing to do. So with that in mind I found someone advertising to sell the same lens I had been looking for and wanting to buy.  I was lucky to find it and I didn’t have to take out that small loan either.  In my efforts as a photographer I set out to practice my art with my new tool of the trade.  I’m happy that I found this lens.   It was well worth the money I spent for it.

Now I have plans to visit a few areas to photograph using this lens in the future, but for now I decided the closes place to do some guarantied animal shots would be at the zoo.  It’s not always the best place, just relaxing.  On top of that the animals are always there and it’s good place to test a new camera lens.  With that in mind.  The weather has been changing here in the midwest as summer slowly turns to fall and then winter.   I guess the animals can sense that as well.  Some critters like the cooler weather and tend to be more active. On this day was really surprised that most of the animals were very active. The Gorillas were out. They were pretty social on this visit.  It was kind of odd because they choose to either turn their back to you or stay out of site. At least this is what happens when I choose to visit.  Not all the time, but most of the time.

Gorilla

The Meerkats are pretty social little buggers, but I tend to wait for them to react in some way to their environment.  In Africa if there was a bird of prey flying above they would seek cover.  In a zoo, it’s not that much different.  They still look for trouble from the ski.  The weather was pretty cloudy that day and the local plane traffic was flying low most likely because of those thick clouds. That in turn made these Meerkats take notice of those flying beasts or planes. They were huddled together looking in all directions. Something you normally don’t see often. This was a rare day for me.  They are so funny and they were hamming it up for the camera. I could not resist.  Most of my equipment was left at home that day.  I kind of regretted not having it with me.  Sometimes you do things you wish you hadn’t. I did however manage to capture a few good likeness of them, so all was not for nothing.   Looking into the short future I look forward to writing more.  For now here are a couple more shots.

Lowland Gorilla

Curious Meerkats

All image are © 2009 Copyright  Chad Davis

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