Back at the Zoo

One stop that is irresistable is the meercat enclosure. They are just too cute for words and are always there posing for their photos. People say they are standing guard over their territory but we photographers know different. Meercats just love having their photo taken. Why else would they look sooo cute and stand sooo still?

The meercats at the Wellington zoo are in for a treat sometime in the future because the zoo is building a brand new enclosure for them. It is almost finished by the looks of things and has some awesome glass viewing panels of the underground sections of the enclosure too. I look forward to seeing the meercats in it.

Animals and birds are not the only things to photograph at the zoo either. This next image is a part of the roof of a hut that is currently under construction in one of the new enclosures. I liked the lines and texture of it. It pays to look around to see what else is there that we often don't notice.

Photoshop CS5

Today I attended the Adobe CS5 Roadshow to see what exciting new features were in Photoshop CS5. As a photographer after seeing what they showed me today I am truely excited by the new features. One feature in particular is a lens correction feature that is based on CS5 identifying both the camera and lens and making adjustments automatically. It was very good!

The most exciting feature however was the Content Aware Fill. This was just amazing to watch, photoshop literally fills in the gaps as if they were never there. Better than the healing tool or the clone, this just replaces the missing bits as if they were never missing. You can remove a pole or a tree or even a person from an image and you can't even see where they have come from.

There is aparently over a hundred new features in Adobe Photoshop CS5, we only saw a few of them today. For me a few was more than enough - I want it and I want it now!!!

Wellington Zoo

The weather wasn't great, the sky was gloomy and the wind was cold but we decided to go to the zoo regardless. There are lots of changes happening at the zoo since I went last. The first of which was a little blue penquin where there was usually an otter. They are in the process of changing many of the enclosures and from what I can see there is going to be lots of walk through exhibits coming. I am looking forward to being able to photograph the birds and tamarins from inside the cage!


This sad looking fellow is a dingo. I don't think I have ever seen dingos at the zoo before so perhaps they are also something new. Just after I shot this image a chicken ran past the side of his enclosure - he became very alert after that. The chicken was lucky it was on the other side of the fence.

We were at the zoo early and many of the animals were waiting to be fed. The wild dogs were pacing back and forth at the front of their enclosure. Thankfully there is a platform above to view them from and I could shoot this little standoff without the cage wire getting in the way.

The baboons were all sitting up close to the viewing glass - right up until they saw the camera. Then they all got up and headed for the hills. We wondered if perhaps they associate the camera with flashing lights that hurt their eyes. I don't use flash at the zoo but I imagine many people do. Whatever the reason they did not like the camera being pointed at them.

Still with birds

Birds are never easy to photograph well because they are always on the move. For some reason as soon as they see the camera lifted they flit off in the opposite direction. Someone needs to educate the bird population to understand that the camera will not harm them and they should just pose and look beautiful for it.

This next image was shot at Staglands Wildlife Reserve in Akatawara, Upper Hutt. They have a feeding station for the waxeyes (and any other bird that chooses to feed there) and there are literally dozens of birds flocking to feed from it. Right up until the cameras are pulled out of course!

This one (below-I think its a canary) was captured in the walk through avairy. If you are lucky when you go through there, there hasn't been a bunch of children through before you scaring all the birds into hiding.

The fantail

Still working my way through the photos from Nga Manu and of all the shots of the fantail, this one is probably the best and it is not sharp by any means. They flit about from tree to tree so fast and they follow us because we are disturbing the bugs that they like to feed on. I am thinking I am going to need a very expensive piece of glass to get the shot I want with the fantail. That or a huge amount of patience and luck.

I am hoping for some fine weather this weekend so I can get out with the camera again. I haven't been to the zoo in a while, not since they opened "The Nest" anyway. The Nest is the new animal hospital which has glass walls so the public can view the operations they perform. I am keen to have a look at it sometime soon.

The Spotter

I am extremely lucky in that my husband is happy to support my photography. He is also happy to come along with me, carry my gear and generally be a spotter. He will point out things of interest that I might have missed, or if we are looking for something in particular like bugs or birds two pair of eyes are better than one.


Today's image is of one of the cheeky kaka's at Nga Manu. They are so keen to say hello they will literally jump on your head if you let them. Unfortunately the lens I had on my camera ment that I didn't want them that close so it was up to the spotter to distract the bird long enough for me to photograph him. We weren't overly successful in this and I probably should have take the time to change lenses but never mind, there is always next time. It is good being able to get in the avairy with the birds though as it means if you are careful you can get a shot without any cage or netting in it.

Nga Manu Nature Reserve

Not every photoshoot goes to plan and today's one most definitely didn't. The thing is to look for the positives and not dwell on the fact that most of my shots were blurred. The elusive fantail teased me constantly throughout the morning and I still don't have a good fantail image. They are so quick to flit from place to place there's just no time to focus before they are gone again.

This tree (to the left) facinated me with the plants attached to it. It looks like little bears crawling up the tree trunk - very cute. This was shot not long after I had fallen into a hole and got a shoe full of water. I am glad I wasn't on my own because getting out required some tugging. Leaving the track when walking in New Zealand bush is not recommended, even if it is only a couple of steps away.












The next image is a branch of dried seed heads. The bush was covered in them. I didn't notice all the cobwebs over it until I started looking at the photos at home.

There was a lot of fungi about in the bush, it had recently rained and everything was damp. The conditions were good for the fungi to sprout. We came across one of the park staff photographing a fungi on the side of a tree. He took the time to talk to us about what he was doing and why. It was facinating.

I had some fun photographing one bird. To start with he was just standing there watching us, nothing special at all. Then he decided to put on a display for us - I am assuming it was for us because I didn't see another bird there to int erest him in such a way. Perhaps he was just warning us that it was his space and we were intruding, I don't know but it was cute to watch. I am trying to find out what type of bird he is and will update this post when I find it.