A day at the zoo

Three weeks ago I went to the zoo with my sis and youngest niece. We picked out the right day, because the weather during the rest of the week wasn't very good. But that Saturday it was perfect. Originally we planned to go a week earlier, but because of the bad weather forecast we cancelled.

I manage to take some okay shots. Not as much as I wanted, but with an eight year old you can't hang around at some place for a long time to wait for that perfect shot. They will get bored and they're right. Nothing more boring than observing an uncle walking from side to side to find the right spot and angle. We had a nice day and my niece really enjoyed it.

I planning to visit a zoo soon by myself, so I can take as much time as I please. But so far the weather has been pretty shitty. Hopefully we'll have a few nice days. I would like to do some more photography before autumn kicks in.

Anyway here are a few shots from our day at the zoo.

Click to enlarge

A visit to the Zoo part 2

Here is serie 2 from my visit to the zoo at Dierenpark Emmen as promised. I think comment is unnecessary.

A visit to the Zoo part 1

Now I'm finished with my selection of pics from our trip to Bavaria last year I still have to do some catching up with posting pics. This time some pics from a daytrip I made to the zoo of Emmen, called Dierenpark Emmen or also called Noorder Dierenpark.

The zoo is considered as one of Europe's finest and won several prizes. It's sure is a nice zoo. Because I forgot an extra battery for my camera I ended up with a flat battery after a few hours while I would have like to take many more pictures. I'm pretty sure I will go back again to this zoo. So this time you have to do it with this selection. The second serie I will post tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

I think these pictures don't need much comment. Most of them will speak for themselves.

Here you will find the original website of the zoo (only in Dutch and German).

First attempt macro photography

Noticed that I didn't post for more than two weeks. I was quite busy. N. and I went on a short three day trip two weeks ago. Hardly didn't took any pictures. Until last weekend. I tried my 105mm f/2.8G AF-S VR Nikon Macro lense for the first time. It was my first serious entry in the amazing world of macro photography.

I didn't had to go far, I only had to walk a few metres from the living room to the conservatory. There was a 3 to 4 mm little fly sitting on the leaves of one of the plants over there. I'm quite new to macro photography, but I soon found out that it's a whole different branch of sport than portrait-, architecture- or landscapephotography. I surely have a lot of trial and error and experimenting to do when it comes to macro photography, but it certainly is exiting.

N. is also growing lavenderplants on the outside balcony which attracts humblebees. I've already shot some pictures of humblebees collecting nectar from the lavender, but most of the pictures didn't came out too well. I didn't use a tripod so that's probably one of the readons why most of the pics failed, but it also was windy which made the stems of the lavender move a lot.

Anyway, despite the poor result with the bumblebees and the so so result with the fly I'm exited enough to go on and continue with macro photography.

I also might need some extension tube sets between the camera and the lense so I can get closer to the subject. The closest focus range for the 105mm f/2.8G AF-S VR Nikon Macro lense is 31 cm and for little animals like flies, bees etc.. that's not close enough. And of course animals and children in general are not the most cooperative creatures in the world. With the picture below I made a cut out from the original picture and enlarged the cutout to the size of the fly that you see below.

Here is an example of one the shots from the fly.

Pubcats again

In this, this and this posting I posted about pubcats before. Last Thursday we met another pubcat in our hometown Utrecht. Like most pubcats this one was spoiled too. He or she (we didn't check and we didn't ask) was treated like a king/queen by the pubowner. While the cat was sitting next to us on a chair he/she was brought water at the table, shortly followed by some catfood. It was funny to watch. The cat obviously enjoyed all the attention from the owner and from us and behaved like a regular customer of the pub.

After some time he/she thought it was about time to get some fresh air and the cat walked out of the window. You should know that the pub is next to the canal and the groundfloor of the pub is about 7 or 8 metres above the water. Outside the window in the back at the canal there was only a small sloping roof with a windowsill. The cat looked very relaxed and confident and did this obviously more often. So the cat just sat down the end of the windowsill and enjoyed the view over the canal.

N. and I mangaged to take some funny and nice pictures from the cat and from the view on the canal from the window. Some of the results will be shown below.

Catching up posting pics (part 2)

I have a busy period behind me. Last Friday I got married with the love of my life N. and although we didn't had a very big wedding there was still a lot of organization involved. We had a few guests from Japan, England and my brother came across from Israel and they all needed to be looked after. But everything went smooth and we had a marvelous day with a nice ceremony and an enjoyable party with good food and drinks in a quiet and pleasant relaxed atmosphere.

For those who are curious about our weddingpictures I have to disappoint you. I'm not going to post pictures from our wedding on this photoblog. Not that they are not worth seeing, but because N. and my mother in law doesn't like it when their pictures are shown to everybody on the internet. I probably might post some of them on an online private photoalbum where only invited people can enter.

So you have to do it in this post with part 2 of my catching up pictures. This time a selection of pics from a cycling trip that I made early in the morning of May 5th, 6 days before our wedding and almost two weeks after the pictures that I showed in the posting before this one. Again they were taken at my regular route from my hometown Utrecht, Oud-Zuilen, Maarssen, Breukelen and Nieuwersluis. After Nieuwersluis I didn't continue and I turned and went back home, because I had some things to do in preparation of our wedding.

This time mainly pictures of birds with little chicks and a stray picture of a building. Most will speak for themselves again, so I won't add much comment to them.

This is part of the Willem III (William the third) militairy barracks at Nieuwersluis and named after King William III who reigned from 1849 until his death in 1890. The barracks first served as a trainingplace for new recruits. After that it became a facility for disciplinary punished soldiers and nowadays it's a women's prison. The barracks are close to Fort Nieuwersluis, the fortress that is part of the Hollandse Waterlinie (Dutch Waterline) and is on the opposite site of the river Vecht.
Because of the reed it was hard to focus on the swan and its chicks, but the unsharp reed adds some nice effect to the pictures I think. A passing by pedestrian offered to keep the reed away so I could get a sharp picture of the swan, but I told him that I didn't want to disturb the swan and the youngsters too much.