Sorry, it’s been a while since I posted; somehow it’s been difficult to get in the right frame of mind for writing things down and presenting photos

One of our two favourite places for a day out for my family at the moment are The Huntington Library and LA Zoo; both are easy to get to and although access is still limited with COVID etc. they are a nice break for my wife, daughter and I.  We are annual members of both places.

I like photographing animals at the Zoo; it’s different to the other more abstract things I shoot and it is something I can do as part of family time.  I guess they are a fairly easy target but sometimes I like easy 🙂

I have been attaching a couple of long(-ish) older zooms to my Pen-F and  very happy with the results.  The first is a very cheap Tokina 80-200mm f/4.5 and the other an Olympus Zuiko 65-200mm f/4 (also inexpensive) both have the OM mount.

Straight out of the camera the images from both lenses have a slightly low contrast, milky  kind of feel but a quick and simple tweak in LR to lower the blacks and they immediately ‘pop’. I’ve had the Tokina for a while and got the Olympus as an ‘upgrade’; I’ll likely sell the Tokina soon as I don’t need two similar lenses

Here are a few favourites from the last two trips.
Meercats are always an easy and amusing subject at the zoo; they are usually very accommodating in standing in interesting poses; it’s easy to anthropomorphize them.

(I like the way these two were looking in this shot though I do admit it’s not a great photo as there is a slight motion blurring the image)

These two chimps were shot on different days and with different lenses. 

While shooting this one of this older chap it felt a little like he was staring me down.

This second one was shot though glass and both were at about 50 feet distance

I like the expression on the second one he seems to be giving me a knowing and appreciative look  (anthropomorphism again, I know).

The giraffes in this zoo seem to be quite curious of the visitors and seemed to look directly at me several times staying nice and still to allow me to frame.  Managed to get quite tight with this shot.

I particularly like the composition in this flamingo picture, he (she?) was pretty much asleep which I took my time getting the image I wanted; the details come out very well I think. 

Hope you like the Pics; I’ll post some more soon and I’ll try to get some film photos done too