One Good Shot: Caught in the Act

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}

The Master Magician Swirls His Cloak

Or a wood duck preens. Take your pick!

(I am still in post-move frenzy. But stay tuned for some thoughts on Jack London’s wolf novels, the importance of being influenced by literature, and the misreading of “domestication” in London’s works. And also more about non-fictional animals.)

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}

This Time We Fool You

(To quote Chico Marx.)

In the pond outside the zoo’s birdhouse is a metal sculpture of a hippo with a bird on its back. Even though the sculpture is at most one-half the size of a real hippo, it’s very lifelike, especially since it’s semi-submerged in the waters of the pond, the hippo’s head and back just breaking the surface. I’m not sure if it was designed by the zoo as some sort of cruel joke, as a means of compensating for the lack of actual hippos, or just as something pretty, but every day children shriek with excitement and adults do double-takes, thinking that they’re seeing a real hippopotamus with a real bird on its back—and every day children are disappointed and adults are embarrassed when they realize they’ve been fooled.

That’s why I liked seeing this:

[one of these things
is not like the others...]

Flamingo Friday: Frustration

or, Mallards Are Sabotaging My Photoshoot

It was the perfect day to get more pictures of flamingos browsing picturesquely in their pond; the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing--but not so much as to make the water’s surface too choppy--the flamingos were wading. But the flamingos were not the only birds in the pond. No; the flamingos were outnumbered—greatly outnumbered—by ducks.

I have nothing against wild birds enjoying the zoo’s habitats; on the contrary, I’m usually only too pleased to see how nicely landscaped and welcoming the zoo’s enclosures are. But I draw the line at scene-stealing waterfowl.

It’s not just that they were in the background--which they were; it’s not just that they often disrupted quite beautiful reflections with their unruly paddling--although they did that, too.

It’s more that, just as I had trained my lens, and waited, and was finally about to capture a good shot--a propitious combination of light, color, and flamingo position--something like this would happen:


Think it only happened once? Ha! Feast your eyes on these marvelously ruined photo opportunities:



I didn’t fault the ducklings; they got in the way, too, but they were just too cute to get mad at.


Nor did I fault the wood duck, just because, with what I admit is a small amount of bird-snobbery, I consider her less common, more novel, and therefore an acceptable subject of photographs in and of herself.

But the mallards…

They drove me to such a point that, more than once, I uttered a word that is not Zoo Friendly. Luckily, there were no children around (not that the kids themselves would care, but their parents would not be happy with me). Eventually, however, I foiled the fowls and managed to get some halfway decent shots after all:



But I could tell they were gloating.

[note how the lovely flamingo reflections are overshadowed
by this smugly preening mallard]