a peek inside the fishbowl

While I recognize that stacks of vacation photos can be a real yawn sometimes, I think a couple of you might find a few photos from our trip to the Toronto Zoo somewhat amusing. My goal: Unusual Portraits of Animals. (Not, Portraits of Unusual Animals.)

While we were there I spent a lot of time watching other people take photos.

If you find yourself taking photos at a zoo may I politely suggest:

1) Avoid shooting through glass. And if you do, turn off your flash. On preview, if your photo looks too dark, keep your hand as steady as possible (leaning against a wall helps, take a deep breath and snap) and adjust your shutter speed for a longer exposure. Depending on what kind of camera you have, you may also be able to bump up the ISO (move it from 200 to 800 or more). This will increase the noise in your photo (a.k.a. there will be more grainy parts) but if the photo really matters you might as well give it a shot.

2) Look for alternate angles and compelling composition. Zoom in! Fill the frame! But also look outside the frame to see if there is something you could include to make it more interesting.

3) Ask yourself: does this photo tell a story?

4) Don’t forget to take photos of your people. If you’re taking pictures of kids you will really benefit by getting down to their level. It makes a huge difference. Try to capture those special moments of your family; your son seeing an elephant for the first time, your daughter intently licking her ice cream cone etc. An album full of zoo animals can be a bit boring (and odds are you probably won’t really look at them again) but you WILL cherish the special memories of your family.

5) Don’t forget to shut off the camera every once in awhile and STOP and LOOK with your own eyes. Mark overheard a guy saying he doesn’t need to look at the animals, that he’ll just look at the photos later. (?)

Click here for a slideshow of our visit. :)

To make our zoo visit a little easier we stayed at the Delta East – which I totally recommend. It is very kid-friendly. This is the big draw here:

The girls had that slide all to themselves on Sunday morning. They were thrilled.

I was thrilled that a two-night stay at the Delta includes admission for four to the Toronto Zoo. Love. it. Our room was very good and it was centrally located, which was perfect.

We also went to the Ontario Science Centre. I was given a pair of tickets to the Harry Potter exhibit (thanks Erica!) but I’m just too pooped to write about that right now. :) I also need to fill you in on the latest KMDM activity. That’s coming up too. Phew.

I hope you’re all having a great weekend!