Challenge: Wildlife (Advanced Editing II) Camera: Fujifilm FinePix 2800Z Location: Columbus Zoo, Powell, Ohio Date: Sep 30, 2004 Galleries: Humorous, Animals Date Uploaded: Sep 30, 2004
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I get off school after 5/6 period (essentially 5th period), which is 11:40. Usually I head down to the Local Wendy's and pick up lunch and go home. But seeing the nature of the challenge, I decided to go just down the road to the Columbus Zoo.
I know, I know, it's a zoo photo. It's hard to get close to "wild" wildlife without them running away, and since I have the camera I do, zooming is extremely limited (heck, this photo was at full zoom and I was about 2 feet away!).
So anyways, the Columbus Zoo. It's allegedly a world reknown zoo, where Jack Hanna started his career. It's right next to where I work (Wyandot Lake waterpark) so parking and admission are free (the benefits!), and I figured, what better way to make good use of my time!
I started off by touring the North America section. I wanted to get something that wasn't too foreign, so that ruled out any african animals, etc. I remember I really liked the Mexican Wolves, so I thought I'd try to take a shot entitled "El lobo." Unfortunately, most of the exhibits have fingerprint smeared glass viewing places crowded with abnoxious small children (especially during the day). I perused through North America, and I got some ok shots, in particular one of a Northern Bobwhite in the migratory bird aviary that had no fences (which ruined my otter, bald eagle, timberwolf, and moose photos) or glass. I decided to head over to the Congo Food Court, and after eating lunch I was on my way out, when I passed by a favorite exhibit of mine, the Humboldt Penguins.
The Exhibit is split level. On one side there's a waste high glass barrier, the other side the glass acts as a dam to hold back the psuedo sea the exhibits provide to the penguins, providing a subaqual view. Since it wasn't feeding time, no penguins were swimming, and the glass played a picturing ruining factor. I took my low quality camera and was leaning halfway over the glass with the zoom full on, and was focusing on this one penguin in particular. I believe his name is Gunther, but I'm not sure. I got several amazing penguin portraits, but each was missing something. The eyes were off, it was too bright, out of focus, blurry, etc. I was a big fan of the detail in the feathers nad skin around the eyes, so I decided to go with this photo. While it's not the best of my shots, it provides the best all around capture. It has all of the elements I wanted in it.
As for post-processing, once again there is none except (of course) a resizing. I will constantly restate in every challenge that I am a purist, so all of my photos will be entered unadultered. I hope this does well, I manage to stay in the 50s no matter what the challenge (though my Complexity entry is doing quite well, so we'll see how that goes). All I'm aiming for is the top 25%. |