I hate it when subjects are rude enough to splash the lens. I was polite enough not to say anything. It is now past spring and all of the bears here in the Rockies are awake and you can find one or two in the hiking trails if you look and listen for them…

I am not sure what they are camouflaged for…maybe if they were native to cobblestone streets I could see it. None-the-less I think that they are beautiful creatures and love going to see them at the Colorado Springs Mountain Zoo.

I mentioned in an earlier post just how difficult that shooting at a zoo can be, but this may be the best picture I have ever taken at a zoo. I think that this is a regal bird in both it’s colors and its “hair-do”. Crowned cranes are the only cranes that roost in trees. All of their chicks hatch at the same time as well, which is uncommon among cranes.

A day at the Zoo is always fun. A day at the Zoo with a camera is hard. When I was first starting to learn how to shoot, a friend of mine said that we should go to the zoo and that it would be a good learning experience for me. He was more than right and still today I continue to go to the Zoo to try and overcome the poor lighting (inside), moving subjects, dirty windows, reflections, chained link fences, bars, people, etc.. it might be one of the hardest places I have ever had to shoot.

This picture is from the Washington D.C. Zoo. They have a great Cheetah enclosure and this Cheetah had her eye on a small child (prey)…I didn’t stick around to see what happened.