Sunday, November 13, 2005

Zoo Visit

Today, Barry and I went to the Zoo of Acadiana to visit the animals and to test out my new Minolta 7D camera. We love going to zoos and auto museums and take every opportunity to do so when we travel.

I am very happy with the 7D. I decided to test it out in the default auto mode. I have a very big, very heavy zoom lens and with the anti-shake technology built into the camera, I was able to get surprisingly sharp pictures using it without a tripod. Considering the fact that the camera and lens weigh tons and my subjects were moving, I thought the results were quite good. Most impressive to me is the quality of the color. I love the feel of a "real" SLR and this camera feels very comfortable. I have lots more to learn. For example, I realized too late that using fill flash in many of the pictures would have yielded me better results.

I have a 1GB card and was shooting raw + jpg. I managed to shoot over 200 pictures. Unfortunately, the card was full before we got to the high point of the zoo, the young white tiger who was acquired not too long ago as a cub. I definitely want to return soon to shoot her in her new habitat, which is very well done.

Anyway, here are some shots from the (high humidity/bad hair) day...