GIven that we’re not gonna be able to go anywhere exotic anytime soon on account of this Covid-19 situation, I’ve been looking a bit closer to home. Copenhagen Zoo is probably the most exotic place in the city, so I hit it up with my good friend and fellow camera freak Oliver Sperling.
The tower at Copenhagen Zoo - Fujifilm X-T3 w. XF55-200mm @ 1/1500sec f5.6 ISO320
The first stop is what’s always my first stop: The lions. Not just on account of the lions being close to the entrance, but because they’re my favorite. I could stand there and just look at that huge lion and his mane for hours. Maybe its hair envy, I don’t know. But look at him, ain’t he just gorgeous!
Fujifilm X-T3 w. XF55-200mm @ 1/300sec f4.8 ISO320
Fujifilm X-T3 w. XF55-200mm @ 1/1500sec f4.8 ISO320
Before we most on from the lions - temporarily - I gotta get something off my chest:
FUCK SEAGULLS
We had bought some churros and were just walking along mind our own business, when suddenly from the back this big mess of white feathers swoop in, bitchslapping me in the face with a wing as it stole the churro right outta my fingers. The goddamn nerve!
Now back our regular programming. From the lions den we moved on to another big cat: The Tiger.
There are few of them in the zoo, but only one was out and about, and she was not happy to see us. She kept showing her teeth and hissing at us, at least until a couple of pigeons landed in the enclosure and she found it more entertaining to chase those around.
Fujifilm X-T3 w. XF55-200mm @ 1/1400sec f4.8 ISO320
Fujifilm X-T3 w. XF55-200mm @ 1/1400sec f4.8 ISO320
These two images of the tiger didn’t really do it for me. The first I do like, but I overdid it on the underexposure. The latter would have worked if I had a lens with greater reach, maybe like a 600mm, but alas I don’t. Plus, I don’t think its a super sharp image.
This next image is the one I got of the tiger that I like, but I couldn’t decide between color or black and white, so I went for both.
Fujifilm X-T3 w. XF55-200mm @ 1/500sec f5.6 ISO320
Now that I look at them side by side, I think I am partial to the black and white. We also went by the pandas, but I don’t see what all the fuss is about. Politics aside, I’ve never seen them do anything other than sleep, poop, and chew bamboo.
Know that feeling bro.
So we left Pandaland behind and went to another favorite of mine: The Grey Wolves. Now usually you hardly ever see them, as they seem to withdraw to the shaded secluded areas in the back, but this time we were there early and found this beautiful fella standing there, staring right at us.
Fujifilm X-T3 w. XF55-200mm @ 1/250sec f4.8 ISO640
At the moment the talk of the town is the polar bear cubs. There’s two of them. One is still a bit unsure and hangs onto momma bear constantly, while the other is jumping about and damn near doing flips into the water.
Fujifilm X-T3 w. XF55-200mm @ 1/480sec f4.8 ISO320
Fujifilm X-T3 w. XF55-200mm @ 1/950sec f.4.2 ISO320
These two shots are of the youngest of the two. It was cute seeing how the little guy wanted to jump in the water after his momma, but just couldn’t quite muster the courage. Now the older cub did not have those problems at all.
And momma bear of course didn’t look half bad herself.
These were the animals that were on “the schedule” so to speak, but the zoo is large so went exploring a bit, and kept a watchful eye for seagulls. There’s are large “Savannah” section with animals from Africa, and whaddayaknow, there is a large rhino population. Its been a while since I visited the zoo, but I remember back then I think I only saw one rhino. Now there are five fully grown rhinos rummaging about. But not only that, there’s this little guy as well.
Not the best photo by any stretch, but look at those ears. Awwwwwwwwwwww.
Even though the zebras were not really on my radar at all, when I got this shot I thought it was going to be the keeper of the day.
When I shot it, I knew exactly how I wanted to edit it, and I’m so pleased with how it turned out. I love the painterly effect it has.
But as luck would have it, there was still another shot in the bag for me. The shot.
On our way to the exit we noticed a lot of commotion in the lions den. It was on account of the keepers having tossed in the carcass of a calf, which was now being slowly devoured by the nearly adult cubs.
Of course the leader of the pack doesn’t need to his paws dirty, so while the cubs and the female were tending to dinner, he was standing in the middle of the enclosure staring off into the distance. And he was posed perfectly. I knew what I wanted from this shot, but I also knew I’d have to do some heavy editing to get what I wanted out of it. So I shot two shots, with one slightly underexposed from the other.
I then combined the two in Photoshop, changed the crop, and then circled back into Lightroom. A few brush adjustments to get the background all black, and this was the result.
Definitely the (zoo)keeper of the day. My only regret is that I don’t have a lens with more range, so I had to crop and lost a lot of resolution. I want a 600mm tele, damn it.
I shot a few other shots that I like, so here they are in no particular order.
