Melbourne Zoo

Johanna's friend Leanne invited us to her birthday celebration in Melbourne Zoo - picnic style. It was partly because of this that I rushed to purchase the EF18-200mm as a zoom lens is good for taking photos of animals which are usually to far away for normal cameras and lens.

Johanna with birthday girl Leanne


Leanne and boyfriend Cody


Leanne's friend Loan and her cute baby girl


Beautiful day, but very hot!


Lion - unfortunately had to take through the fence


Johanna with her new Canon SX110IS - her Christmas gift from me


Bear searching for something in the water


A smaller bear


My favourite subject - the peacock


The head of a giant tortoise - he's huge


Meerkat is very good in posing for photos


A cute little boy on a merry go round


Nice flower - I realise that my lens is no sharp enough for good macros. Johanna's SX110IS (has 0cm macro) can take better macros even though it's a consumer camera.


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A group of hungry little penguins waiting to be fed


Little penguins running towards their food


The brown bird does not belong to the zoo. It's a smart bird that will pick up any fish that is dropped on the ground. Little penguins do not pick up their food once they drop it.


Ah... finally managed to get one fish


Happy little penguin after being fed - shaking his bum while walking


They may look small, but they are also worried about the state of Australia's economy. Just in case no more fish.


This very charming bird broke one of its wings 6 years ago, causing it to lose the ability to fly. Poor thing.


Once again, I'm not happy enough with the quality of macro shots produced by EFS18-200mm


Photographer photographed


New addition to the zoo


Very colourful mandrill. It has an equally colourful butt. Check this out.


Elvis or John Travolta?


Pelican spreading its wings


Giraffes munching


Never know flowers can grown in multi level fashion


Nice butt


Zebra grazing

More photos at my Flickr.

I've learnt something important from shooting the animals. First, don't be stingy with ISO. Animals can move really fast. Coupled with zoom, it is going to be difficult to freeze their action. I thought hundredth of a second is good enough. Many photos turned out not sharp enough in the end.

Many animals are either behind fence, cage or glass in Melbourne Zoo. We also missed out on the snow leopard and tiger, the former sleeping, the latter nowhere to be seen. I hope to visit Werribee Zoo next. It's more of safari style. But wonder if my zoom lens is good enough. Itching to get EFS100-400mm.