North Carolina Zoo

So we went to the NC Zoo today, which, despite being 85 miles away, is really a great place to hang out and shoot photos. Here’s what we got:

Some reptiles:

  A seal. Yeah, his eyes looked like that.

An otter, chowing down on a fish.

  This is how I felt after walking about 5 miles today.

This guy’s obviously behind a chain link fence, but I still kinda like the photo. Since I don’t expect to see any bald eagles in the wild in the near future, this will have to suffice.

A large, albeit not very exotic, creature.

The bowling pins are a nice touch.

  I got a few shots of a humming bird:

More birds:

OK, these aren’t  actually zoo animals. But I’ve got three cardinals in one shot—two males and a female. They’re skittish birds!

These guys aren’t very exotic either.

Somewhat more exotic.

  No explanation necessary.

We really enjoyed seeing the gorillas. It was difficult shooting through dirty glass, but I got some OK shots:

I really like this one, actually.

The chimpanzees were definitely our favorites though. They put on a show for us today:

Again, it was difficult to shoot through the glass (because of both dirt and glare). But this older chimp was up-close, so I did my best.

This one just looked better in black & white.

And, for my favorite shot of the day . . .

Yep, this one is definitely my favorite. Great expression on this chimp.

Recent Photos – Duke Gardens, etc.

Here are some recent photos, most of which were taken at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

Ooooh, foresty.

  As you can see, the roses were in bloom.

Cider was in a good mood, as always.

  As was Bella.

It’s baby duck season, apparently.

More flowers.

This looks like something you’d see while scuba diving, but it’s actually a tree.

A statue.

Star Commons, Duke Law School.

Cameron Indoor Stadium (Duke Law graduation). Click to enlarge.

Proof that Nixon went to Duke.

Cardinals II

I managed to get a little closer to a male cardinal this afternoon, and snapped a few photos before he flew off. (I had about 30 seconds.) Here’s what I got:

Getting better!

Cardinals

So it’s been a while since I last posted here. It turns out that getting through the last semester of a JD/MA program doesn’t leave as much time for photoblogging as I would have hoped.

Anyway, Spring has officially sprung here in NC. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been trying to get a good photo of a cardinal. Unfortunately, they’re pretty skittish birds. So far, this is as close as I’ve gotten to a male cardinal:

Like I said, they’re skittish birds!

The other day, I heard a cardinal outside (I’ve learned to recognize their calls), so I grabbed my camera and ran out. Sure enough, there was a cardinal in close range—but unfortunately, it was a female. Nothing against female cardinals, but they aren’t quite as photogenic as the boys. But I snapped some photos anyway:

    I’m pretty happy with this shot in particular. Too bad she isn’t a he!