UTAH'S HOGLE ZOO

On our recent visit to Salt Lake City, we took the grandkids to the local zoo, Utah's Hogle Zoo.  I brought my camera along.

Here, first, is a mundane shot of one of the giraffes.  Just OK.

In a neighboring pen were some ostriches and I realized what ugly bodies they have.  So in the photo I took I limited my shot to the neck up.

The zebras were easier to capture.  Here are a couple of the shots that I kept.

I liked this second shot for its capture of the curve of the zebra's mane.

I tried to get a good shot of the elephants, but they were steadfast in keeping only their rumps to me.  I toyed with getting a closeup of their tails but in the end decided the shot wasn't worth keeping.

I did get a decent shot of one of the rhinos.  My goal here was to focus on the texture of the animal's skin, highlighted by the brilliant sun.

When we visited the lions, they were behind glass--dirty glass--and for the most part the animals were not close or positioned well for taking pictures.  However, I did get a nice shot of a lion cub who was napping in the morning heat.

Then it was on the the bears.

The shot I got of a polar bear was sort of a mistake: I was too close.  But I liked the effect of the closeup.  Dreaming?

One of the black bears was lying with its foot up against the glass, so I took the following shot.

I felt good about this shot because, even though there was no way to get a decent shot of the whole bear, the photo that I got is unmistakable.

The other two cat shots that I got were of a lynx and a tiger.

Both shots are flawed: The lynx was in the shade and the tiger was behind fencing, but I thought the tiger shot in particular was effective.

I did get a decent shot of a meerkat in the small animal building.  The interior light was not great, but the animal seemed to be posing for the shot.  And because the background was more or less blank, it almost looked like a museum shot of a stuffed animal.

Finally was a spoonbill that also seemed to be posing.

Here is a closeup of the bird's head.

A face that only a mother (or maybe an ornithologist) could love.

John