Zippety Zoo Doo

I mentioned last week that I had a bit of a weekend trip planned with PhotoKnitSib Erica.

The Cincinnati Zoo.

Do you love the zoo? I do too! (stop sounding like Dr. Suess!).

If I showed you ALL the photos that I took….(700+)….you would never come back here to my humble abode.

If I showed you all the photos that I have whittled down as the “keepers”…….(350+)…..you would run away screaming. But I THINK you can handle a few photos right?

I knew you could.

Let me start off by saying that for the past 10 days or so we had been anxiously watching the weather. And with good reason. At first there was a 40% chance of rain…then 50%….then 75% chance. But if there is a 75% chance of rain then that also means that there is a 25% chance that it WON’T rain right? But if you are a betting person………

I would bet on rain.

Yup, it was wet this weekend at the Cincinnati Zoo. Sunday was worse than Saturday by far. This was my view for most of the day on Sunday….

Believe me when I tell you that it is difficult to take pictures when you have the umbrella handle stuck under your left armpit, a 20 pound backpack to contend with and you are trying not to get your camera and long lens any wetter than it has to be. Fun times. We soldiered on, tough photographers that we are.

And there was wine in the evening. Thank goodness.

There were lots of kids hanging around the park. It was Hallzooween weekend. I have A LOT of pictures of kids. The cuteness factor was in overdrive.

Erica is often at the zoo to photograph the “Running of the Cheetahs”. She is searching for the perfect cheetah in full run picture. She often achieves it. I have seen her pictures so I know. Me on the other hand……

First try. I was going for a sense of movement…….

Hmmmmmmm.

Weirdly artistic but certainly not what I was going for. Heck I didn’t know WHAT I wanted to do. How fast can I google motion blur as I am waiting for the next cheetah run?

Pretty darn fast.

Nope.

Well I will settle for this one for the first time around. It won’t go up in the Cincinnati Zoo photos on Flickr but I can live with it.

But enough about Cheetahs. Let’s see what other animals were on display.

All I could do, while standing watching the Orangutan, was sing the songs from Jungle Book.

Now I’m the King of the Swingers, whoa, the jungle V.I.P. I’ve reached the top and had to stop and that’s what’s been botherin’ me……

Help me.

Who are you looking at?

A hungry cougar eyeing a meatball. Or perhaps it was just the small, and tasty child that was standing there.

Leave me ALONE

Lounging Lemurs. At least I think these are Lemurs…..

Monkey Misery. Can you see the rain falling. Yeah, that was fun.

Bonobo Breast Self Exam. I will spare you, for the moment, the photos of her examining her offspring’s fecal matter. And then taste testing same. You can thank me later.

Who knew that Polar Bears liked pumpkin so much!

If I don’t stop this we will be here until next week! I could fill up an entire week of blogging just with the photos of the Bonobos. So as we close the zoo edition of the blog lets just end as you knew I would…..

With animal butts.

I know. You are overjoyed.

You’re welcome.