Since I'm on Spring Break this week, Her Royal Highness and I have been spending a LOT of time together. We've been every slide and swing at the local "big" park and have made what seems like a metric of art projects. But of course, her favorite thing has been going to the zoo.
If you're like me, you might find yourself taking the same snaps of the same animals at the zoo every time you go (and we go quite a bit) and then having a bazillion pictures of giraffes eating. So, while I couldn't help myself with some of the animals, this time, I handed HRH the camera and asked her to take pictures of our day. I was satisfied to take a few pictures of her and just enjoy our time together instead of seeing it through a lens. While I did ask her if she wanted to take a picture of each animal, I only assisted her in holding the camera strap, but all of the photos were taken solely by HRH. I have to say - and yes, I'm sure I'm biased - that I'm truly impressed with the way she centered her pictures, and I'll tell you that she was very careful in timing the pictures she took of the sting rays as they swam by so that she'd get a photo of them and not just the water. Someday very soon she'll master the zoom feature.
HRH does have some toy cameras, and she also sometimes pretends to take photos using her toy phones (only a 21st century baby would do that, huh?), but I have given her our old cameras to use, and she just loves being able to take actual photos to show to people. If you have a little one, I encourage you to toss him or her your camera while you're out on an "adventure" to see how it's recorded from a child's eyes!
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| The sidewalk at the entrance |
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| Vulture and desert tortoises at the entrance |
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| One up high |
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This is Sheena, one of the (Asian) elephants.
The kids got to toss carrots into the enclosure, and even though the
keeper said that Sheena's the shyer of the elephants, she came over
for a snack and some great photo ops! |
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| "Say 'fuzzy pickle,' Mommy!" |
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| At the Komodo dragon exhibit |
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| Letting a sleeping dragon lie |
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| The larger Komodo dragon, giving us his best side |
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| Fence up close (this was supposed to be a picture of the giraffes, I think) |
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| Tree house - all kids love it; all parents hate it. |
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Do you see the tiger?
We even got to hear him roar! |
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| "Shadow People" |
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| Lions (Or, Lazy A$$ Cats) |
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| "Stroller in Motion" |
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| Giving a keeper the finger? |
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| Sting rays! |
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| More sting ray madness |
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| Find the ram (bighorn sheep) |
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OTTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(these are spotted neck otters, and they were pretty talkative) |
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| More otter shenanigans |
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| Rhinoceros |
Well, well.... look who's a budding wildlife photographer! Way to rock the lens, HRH. I look forward to your first safari shoot for National Geographic in about 17 years. I'm putting a reminder in my web calendar now. :D
ReplyDeleteShe's really loving the use of the camera (the last one I gave her broke... at her little hands), so she's documenting EVERYTHING. Good thing Momma has final say in what gets shown to anyone else, right? Hopefully this can become a fantastic hobby for her!
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