There are some photos that I never get tired of seeing. Sometimes I am just in the right place at the right time and something magical happens. If you notice our Eagle Photos from Keith Wedoe, you will see tons of examples of what I mean. Today I want to share a few of my photos that I just can’t help looking at time and again.
The first photo is one of my absolute favorites. I was at the Cincinnati Zoo one day shooting pictures of the animals. The polar bears were swimming and fairly active. One thing the zoo does is enrichment. They freeze fish in blocks of ice for bears sometimes. The bears had just finished enrichment and were having fun. I stood at the underwater viewing glass to see what pictures I could take when this bear came up to the window. Over the course of 5 minutes, the bear came up to the window, stopped, and looked at me several times. I shot dozens of photos. Unfortunately, my computer crashed within a couple of days of these photos. I run backups of my photos all the time, but got caught in this instance with no backups. This photo is one of a few I had already uploaded to the website before the crash. This bear stopped at the window, consciously placed its paw up under his chin, paused for a minute, then took off for the surface. Very cool to share a moment with such a beautiful animal.
This is the second shot as the bear goes to the surface.
These next two photos were taken at the Cincinnati Zoo. These are two photos of a white lion. Their exhibit is located very close to the polar bears. This lion was sunning himself. I try to make a few guttural noises to mimic a low growl to see if the lions will look up or react. Not sure why, but he looked up at the sun and I got this gem out of about 24 shots. This looks like a growl, but it is actually a sun sneeze coming out.
The next photo is a couple of years later. I was grunting a bit and he looked at me like, “Oh really, bring it on. You bore me.” I love that he was looking straight at me. It’s hard to appreciate the size of this guy in the photo, but he is a big lion.
The next photo is an Ostrich at the St. Louis Zoo. People were feeding the giraffes with leaves and this bird came over to see what was going on. It came right up to me and I got this photo (on film at the time). I just love the look this bird gave me. So happy and care free.
The last couple of photos I will post today are gorillas. I just love photographing gorillas and have blown out 150 or so at a time on the digital camera. Their expressions are so much like humans. They are very caring and gentle animals unless, of course, you threaten them. I became a benefactor of the Cincinnati Zoo and that got us some special chances to visit when the zoo was closed. One of the events was a gorilla encounter. We got to come in before opening and spend some special time with the gorillas and their caretaker. What a great day.
This one hurts. Not one of my best photos, but it is special to me. I took this photo on my daughter’s birthday in April of 2006. You would not know it from his face, but this silverback had an abscess tooth. The zoo did emergency surgery, but he went into cardiac arrest under the anesthetic and could not be revived. He died on a Tuesday two days after I took this photo.
These are the kinds of photos that are uplifting. Mother and baby enjoying time together. She is such a caring, wonderful mother. I got to shoot pictures of her over the course of several months. What an enjoyable experience. The baby had just finished nursing and mom was looking around. I like to think this is the proud mom looking at me.
This is the kind of photo I really like to take – the nurturing, gentle side of a very dangerous animal. She is a very patient mother.
This Silverback is a giant at over 600 pounds. Just enormous. It is very hard to appreciate the size of his head in the photo. He is so gentle with the baby gorilla. He is a tender, loving father.
Here is his playful side. On Halloween, the zoo gives the gorillas pumpkins with veggies and straw inside as well as some other things. One of the items is a sheet in the shape of a ghost filled with treats. If I had any doubt about the killing abilities of this guy, they were answered when he ran his finger down the sheet. With a simple little flick, he cut the sheet completely up like a pinata. I would hate to be on the delivering end of his hand and nails if he were angered and decided to hit me with intent to cut. This is a full sized plastic pumpkin. His head dwarfed it.
Hope you like the photos. Our galleries have lots more of the same.