We love going to the Detroit Zoo in the winter. It’s less
crowded, so taking your time to get decent photos is easier. The light inside
of buildings like the beautiful aviary and butterfly house is usually more
diffused during the colder months and less harsh than high summer sunlight
shining through the windows, creating nicer natural lighting for photos.
The zoo usually doesn’t allow tripods or monopods
inside its buildings without special permission. Building attendants might allow
you to take a monopod into a building if it is a really slow day, but it’s
still best to be prepared to shoot with a hand-held camera.
We especially enjoy taking photos when there is a
nice covering of snow on the ground. Some of the animals are more active in the
winter, and the lack of crowds again makes it easier to take your time and
watch for your best shot.
We purchased our membership to the zoo with the idea
of visiting the zoo multiple times each year (and during different seasons) to
take photos, enjoy the animals and support the zoo’s mission of honoring and
preserving wildlife.
Hopefully we’ll see some more snow this winter and get back out to the zoo to take photos then. Meanwhile, here are some bird and butterfly photos from previous cold-weather zoo trips.
Check out this post for a few more photos from the
zoo’s Arctic Ring of Life exhibit.
Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.
© Dominique King 2009
Love the butterfly picture. And I like how you mentioned about supporting zoos by getting membership. I'm a big believer in that as well.
Posted by: Carolina | January 02, 2009 at 09:34 AM
You have some great photos there, especially that butterfly shot - it's a challenge when animals don't sit still as you'd like.
Posted by: heatheronhertravels | January 02, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Thos pictures are absolutely beautiful! I can never get butterfly shots like that!
Posted by: Heading North After Naptime | January 02, 2009 at 11:25 AM
Carolina-We're big on memberships, we've got them to nearly every museum/park/whatever around town. The advantage for us at a lot of places like the zoo or the historical outdoor museum Greenfield Village @ The Henry Ford is being able to just pop in for an hour or so on any given day to take a few photos without paying the full admission price every time. It's also about supporting the historical/cultural life of the area and encouraging us to go see some of the great sites we have around town more often.
Heather-I think these shots came from one of the days we managed to get a monopod into the building with us. Otherwise, I'm just reduced to taking a deep breath and holding it as I take the shot...hoping to still my camera a bit that way...and hoping the subject sits there long enough for me to get the photo!
Jen-I was just lucky that day!
Posted by: Dominique King | January 02, 2009 at 07:28 PM
Beautiful! Thanks for leaving a comment on our blog. Yeah, I understand, it is hard to be on everything. ;) I put photos on twitpic as a time saver.
I am still trying to catch up here as we at quite a whirl wind world tour this year at a faster pace that I am used to. Spain is where we catch up.
I also want to comments on other photo Friday blogs, but some are really hard to comment on, so that usually stops me.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Posted by: Soul Travelers3 | January 03, 2009 at 06:35 AM