Sunday, May 29, 2005

Here's Looking At You


Hey, it's Memorial Day. Why not go to the zoo? Pack up the younglings and don't forget to take a camera (my younglings are too big for this now - see yesterday's post).

This photo of a snow leopard was taken at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo. There was a very tall and stout chain link fence between us, which was good. It was hard to read what this guy was thinking - friend, foe or food. A 70-210mm zoom lens set fairly close to the chain link threw the fence out of focus to the point of becoming nearly invisible. You can see traces of the fence in the edges of this photo if you look hard. I could draw a parallel about how taking a long view of things takes the edge off the problems of today, but I'll spare you.

I had this photo up as a wallpaper on my home computer until my wife asked me to change it. She said she didn't like how the leopard's eyes followed her around the room. I guess that makes this an effective photo. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Zoos are great. Lots of exotic wildlife along a leisurely stroll. Neither photographer nor animals are in a hurry to get anywhere. Photographing animals in the wild requires a ton of patience and an extremely long lens, of which I have neither.

This guy does it the hard way.

© 2005 James Jordan

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