Day 4 – No Butts, Animal Butts That Is

Today we basically spent all day at the zoo, since San Diego Zoo is very large. We got up around 7:00 AM and had breakfast at the hotel breakfast buffet. They had build your own breakfast burrito. I didn’t make a burrito, just had some eggs and a muffin.

After breakfast we headed to the zoo, which was 15 minutes away. I did argue with the GPS slightly as it wanted to put me on the freeway for half mile, when I could just go through the city streets and not deal with rush hour traffic. I convinced it to take the city street route. We got to the zoo right when it opened at 9:00AM and didn’t leave till almost 3:00PM. Yes, the zoo is that big. We started in the Wildlife Explorers Base Camp which had some invertebrates, red pandas, owls, fennec foxes, and hummingbirds. We started here because the aerial tram station is there and it takes you to the top of the zoo, so we could work our way down the hill instead of up. The aerial tram didn’t open till 10:00 AM so we had plenty of time in the Wildlife Explorers Base Camp area. (See Map to follow along and see how much we walked.)

The aerial tram drops you off in the Norther Frontier area where you can see the polar bears and then start making your way down the elephant odyssey trail past lions, tigers, rhinos, and elephants to the bottom of the zoo. Once at the bottom we did the Outback and Urban Jungle section which had kolas, zebras, and giraffes. We ate lunch at Sydney’s Grill inside the zoo. Then caught the zoo bus back to the top to work our way down the hippo and tiger trail. I bet you can guess what is along those trails. Once we reached the bottom again, we had to back track slightly to see the sun bear, grizzly bear, and sloth bear, and penguins coming down Africa Rocks trail to see the lemurs and fossa, and cheetahs. From there we called it a day and headed to the gift shop and exit.

The zoo has changed a lot since I was last there almost 15 years ago. It has a lot more shade, more transportation options, and more animals. The zoo also now sells beer, wine, and frozen margarita. I completely understand the drink, because I think some of those parents deserve an adult beverage. The one thing included in your ticket price, which we did not do, was the double decker bus tour of the zoo which lasts about 45 minutes and drives you around to give you the highlights and talks about conservation efforts.

Once we were back at the hotel we relaxed for a bit before heading out to grab a light dinner we ate at the Carnitas Snack Shack and got tacos.

Tomorrow, we have most of the day as our flight home is a red eye. We will probably head over to Balboa Park for a bit then go over to see the USS Midway.

Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7 th , I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay . The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session. Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust. Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs. Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey. (Source: Western Exterminator Company) For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Fake cobwebs Table ...

Spooky in the Morning

On October 5 th , I did an on-location spooky session with Rebecca at Claude Moore Park. The theme was Victorian ghost; however, it is hard to be a ghost at 9:30 in the morning on a bright sunny day. I did my best to get a spooky look. For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Cannon Speed lights 1 30-inch umbrella Light stand Assistant Smoke Genie The setup The set up was relatively easy. I mounted a Canon speed light on a light stand with an umbrella. My assistant then held the light in the appropriate spots as we made our way around the park to different locations. Camera Settings This session was held outdoors in bright morning sun and was intended to look spooky, so I tried to keep the images dark. Thus, I used ISO 100, which is great for sunny conditions. I wanted to maintain a soft background as much a...

Cyber Blue

On October 11 th , I worked with Dayvon on a cyber concept shoot. This shoot was designed around a pair of contact lens with a circuit board pattern. This inspired me to think about things like “Blade Runner”, “Tron” and cyber punk in general. For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights 2 Phottix strobes 2 Phottix Rectangular Softboxes with a grid 2 C-stands Blue gels Silver garage insulation Backdrop stand Black backdrop Connectable foam workout mats For this shoot I started out using four lights. The first two were small speed lights with blue gels attached placed on the floor aimed at the backdrop. The backdrop was silver garage insulation, which looks like silver bubble wrap. The backdrop reflected the blue light forward providing a bit of rim light. My main two lights were the strobes is rectangular soft boxes with grids attached. For this shoot I kept the lighting very low key, styled along that of a photo of Ryan Gosling i...

The Munchkin's Notebook

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