Time for another photo dump
Finally got through the photos from Friday of our Nashville trip (which happened in mid-September!). These are mostly animal-related: the zoo, and a weird aquarium-thing with stingrays in a giant mall. Full set is here. (Some of these were taken by K's stepfather.)
This was not one of my better zoo outings. I really struggled with close-ups and zooms this time. I also learned that my camera doesn't give warning when the card is full--it just continues to shoot and deletes stuff from the beginning. :| I lost all the animals at the beginning of the zoo, and a whole bunch of things in the "Unseen World" house, including the keeper feeding all the animals in the Amazon exhibit. I was pretty heartbroken about that. My father-in-law offered his shots so that we'd still have some record of things I missed or didn't get good shots of, as he has a much better camera.
The zoo had three clouded leopard cubs born last year; they'd recently gone on display when we were there. Most of these are of the male cub, though the one sleeping in the tree is one of the females. There's also a video clip of the male cub.
Look! I have legs!
The meerkat exhibit is more or less in the middle of the zoo and visitors pass it multiple times going to other parts of the zoo. So there are a lot of meerkat photos, from multiple passes.
So, the white tiger was really busy and pacing all over the exhibit, while the orange one was snoozing. But it seems that there was some kind of invisible line near the orange one that marked his "space," and the white one seemed determined to cross it. These four shots are a very abbreviated version of what happened (there are more photos on Flickr), but basically, the white tiger was playing a great big version of "I'm not touching you!" until the orange tiger got pissed off and called his bluff. It was pretty awesome.
After we finished at the zoo, we went to a ginormous mall. In this mall is a thing called Stingray Reef, which is a sort of small private aquarium/zoo thingy. The centerpiece is a giant pool filled with stingrays and bamboo sharks, and visitors can touch and feed the stingrays. I am not entirely comfortable with the existence of this place, as I have my doubts about how well the animals are cared for and what so much human contact does to them, but I admit I participated.
That first shot is me sticking my fist in the water with a shrimp hanging between my fingers. The second shot is me leaping backwards in panic when a big-ass aggressive bat ray LEAPED UP THE WALL after the shrimp. The larger rays and the smallish wedge-shaped ones were pretty docile, but the bat rays were *really* aggressive, and have clearly learned that a human standing near the wall means food--we saw them come up out of the water like that multiple times.
They aren't dangerous, exactly, nor deliberately bitey--but they're carnivores, and they're wild (and amazingly strong), and if you're not careful, you'll get bitten. I got a finger scraped by the teeth of one (it felt like a cheese grater), and K didn't hold one of his shrimp quite right and got a full-on bite that had to be cleaned and bandaged.
For as many as I posted, there are plenty more on Flickr--I tried to limit myself here. Have a look if you like critters.
Still on my "to be processed" list: The Hermitage (President Andrew Jackson's estate), the Puyallup Fair, my grandfather's 90th birthday party, a certain autumn wedding, the rest of the shots from our behind-the-scenes tour at the zoo, Halloween, and the flamenco recital. And I even still have shots from our visit to the Seattle Aquarium *last March* that I never finished off. Good lord.
This was not one of my better zoo outings. I really struggled with close-ups and zooms this time. I also learned that my camera doesn't give warning when the card is full--it just continues to shoot and deletes stuff from the beginning. :| I lost all the animals at the beginning of the zoo, and a whole bunch of things in the "Unseen World" house, including the keeper feeding all the animals in the Amazon exhibit. I was pretty heartbroken about that. My father-in-law offered his shots so that we'd still have some record of things I missed or didn't get good shots of, as he has a much better camera.
The zoo had three clouded leopard cubs born last year; they'd recently gone on display when we were there. Most of these are of the male cub, though the one sleeping in the tree is one of the females. There's also a video clip of the male cub.
Look! I have legs!
The meerkat exhibit is more or less in the middle of the zoo and visitors pass it multiple times going to other parts of the zoo. So there are a lot of meerkat photos, from multiple passes.
So, the white tiger was really busy and pacing all over the exhibit, while the orange one was snoozing. But it seems that there was some kind of invisible line near the orange one that marked his "space," and the white one seemed determined to cross it. These four shots are a very abbreviated version of what happened (there are more photos on Flickr), but basically, the white tiger was playing a great big version of "I'm not touching you!" until the orange tiger got pissed off and called his bluff. It was pretty awesome.
After we finished at the zoo, we went to a ginormous mall. In this mall is a thing called Stingray Reef, which is a sort of small private aquarium/zoo thingy. The centerpiece is a giant pool filled with stingrays and bamboo sharks, and visitors can touch and feed the stingrays. I am not entirely comfortable with the existence of this place, as I have my doubts about how well the animals are cared for and what so much human contact does to them, but I admit I participated.
That first shot is me sticking my fist in the water with a shrimp hanging between my fingers. The second shot is me leaping backwards in panic when a big-ass aggressive bat ray LEAPED UP THE WALL after the shrimp. The larger rays and the smallish wedge-shaped ones were pretty docile, but the bat rays were *really* aggressive, and have clearly learned that a human standing near the wall means food--we saw them come up out of the water like that multiple times.
They aren't dangerous, exactly, nor deliberately bitey--but they're carnivores, and they're wild (and amazingly strong), and if you're not careful, you'll get bitten. I got a finger scraped by the teeth of one (it felt like a cheese grater), and K didn't hold one of his shrimp quite right and got a full-on bite that had to be cleaned and bandaged.
For as many as I posted, there are plenty more on Flickr--I tried to limit myself here. Have a look if you like critters.
Still on my "to be processed" list: The Hermitage (President Andrew Jackson's estate), the Puyallup Fair, my grandfather's 90th birthday party, a certain autumn wedding, the rest of the shots from our behind-the-scenes tour at the zoo, Halloween, and the flamenco recital. And I even still have shots from our visit to the Seattle Aquarium *last March* that I never finished off. Good lord.