I'm back from my July trip to Disney - and boy was it HOT! "How hot was it?" It was so hot, that even the gorillas were sweating!: This was my first time at Disney with the new camera...and it didn't disappoint! I didn't even bring my dedicated wildlife lens, the 200-500 Tamron (it was too hot to be lugging it around), so I made due with my all-purpose 18-250 lens. Usually I go to Animal Kingdom with 720mm of range on my H5, but with the A300 and the 18-250 lens, I've got only a 375mm equivalent...however, the good lens quality, and the camera's larger sensor and higher resolution, gave me surprising results that I was very pleased with. Here are some more of the gorilla shots I snapped with this combo - handheld (didn't bother to bring the tripod either): Male gorilla warning me to stop taking photos, or I'd get a bag of knuckles: Hot and sweaty: "Do you ever stop with that camera, bub?": "I'm tryin to eat here, guy!": This guy was having a rest on a full stomach...looks like he just ate a hiker: Comments or critique welcome. Good to be back on the boards...but I'd rather be back at Disney! Though it was miserably hot there...it's just as miserably hot at home...so given the choice to be miserably hot at home or at Disney, I'd choose Disney!
I'm tremendously amused by the shot that looks like the gorilla is shaking his fist at you. I was going to say that it's just crying out to be used on www.icanhascheezburger.com, but I couldn't think of a great caption for it.. but I realized what it needs. "Hey you kids, get off my lawn!"
HW...the Tamron is great. I absolutely love the color and sharpness of detail with that lens. I can't wait to have more excuses to shoot with it. Unfortunately with the heat of summer on in full effect, I probably won't use it much until October. Most of the birds and wildlife have left for northern climes or are sleeping off the days, and the idea of hiking for miles carrying a heavy camera/lens/tripod around doesn't appeal to me when the temperature and humidity are both nipping at triple-digits! Dan...those gorillas are fantastic at emoting - you could sit there for hours taking photos, and every photo would elicit an all-new caption. I am always fascinated by them and always spend more than an hour photographing them. This trip, I took 30-40 shots but got chased away after only 20 minutes due to a torrential downpour that snuck up. I ducked for cover under the cave just beyond the gorilla pit long enough to put away my camera in the waterproof bag, then bailed out of the cave when it filled up with a few hundred people and got too stuffy. I got soaked taking a long walk back to the Dawa bar in pouring rain...but in the upper-90-degree temperature, it felt great!
It's funny, I've traditionally found gorillas (in all areas, not specifically Animal Kingdom) to make poor subjects. This provides an interesting insight into how Disney manage their gorillas. See, at Brookfield Zoo, my normal animal stomping grounds, the adults spend a LOT of their time sleeping. Which is fairly standard for the species, I think, you take away the foraging for food and the roaming and they're left with a lot of resting. The silverback is ALWAYS in a poor position to photograph, resting and not being very active at all. The babies or juveniles are often fun, but overall I just don't see much going on. I have seen more at AK, though. Rather than a family group that's largely inactive I see individuals going about their business, including juveniles fighting, a sort of sibling rivalry thing that I always thought was crying out for kung fu movie sound effects. I seem to recall that the smaller female was said to be the dominant one in the fighting. I suppose that's the result of intentional design work on the exhibit and the way the gorillas are treated. If so.. kudos to them. From a conservation perspective this sort of contact is excellent.
That seems to be the case, Dan. I've spoken to alot of the handlers in my many times there, and for the most part they do strive for as much 'natural' behavior and environment as is possible in a captive location. They do not take any animals out of natural habitats - all are either born in captivity or taken from other zoos which couldn't handle them or were having problems. They even try to let the natural behavior go on, though sometimes shocking and violent to viewers. Fighting is indeed part of gorilla life, so it's not unusual to see them get into some pretty hefty scraps - and the scars and wounds that result. Notice in the guy laying down that he's healing quite a gash on the back of one leg. I have shots from my last visit you might recall me posting from a fight that went down while I was there, with alot of tree shaking and teeth baring, and one bloody gash the end result. They'll try to prevent any animals suffering any deep harm or death (they have had one death the result of a fight - understandable that they can't exactly break up a fight between two silverbacks!), and treat the injuries to prevent infections or further injury - and they'll separate two males if they're really going at it too often. But in general, they seem to get alot of credit from wildlife agencies for how they handle their gorillas.
Yes it was hot today! There were two males hanging out on the valley on the side of the exit to the safari rather than the trail. [attachment=1] I know Tim got a few with his bazooka. Me - I was just tugging along with my 200mm zoom. Wide angle was my main objective this time around. [This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]
Nice Rog. I'm definitely bringing the big boy lens in December when the weather is cooler and bringing my full backpack won't be as much a bother. In the summer, it's just too hot to be carrying 30+ Lbs of lenses in a packpack - I sweat enough through my shirt without trapping in the heat with a pack hanging on my back! The 250mm did well enough to get me there with the 1.5x crop...but the 500mm will be able to count hairs in the nostril! Looking forward to seeing what Tim got.
