I had to fly over to Adelaide to take care of some business, so I thought I’d take an early flight to give me a few hours at Adelaide Zoo to get some photos.
Unfortunately it started raining just as I arrived, and got steadily heavier until it was bucketing down at one point – I had to find shelter in the large Rotunda with all the bored school kids and bedraggled teachers.
![Adelaide Zoo - avenue of bamboo](https://www.simonhampel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/20080922-40d_7036-500x333.jpg)
My main goal was to get some general photos of the zoo itself and of the various enclosures for discussion on ZooChat – so the fact that it was not ideal conditions for photographing animals wasn’t actually that much of an issue. I was able to get some fairly decent photos of the zoo, even if they are a bit dull and lifeless – at least there wasn’t many people around to get in the way! It was a little awkward taking photos with the DSLR in one hand and an umbrella in the other – but I managed.
![Adelaide Zoo - food preparation area](https://www.simonhampel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/20080922-40d_7079-500x333.jpg)
Ever since they built them a few years ago I’ve liked the toilet block / bird aviary – although it is a little disconcerting to have a large Cockatoo staring at you while you are trying to do your business.
![Adelaide Zoo - Toilet Block or Bird Aviary ?](https://www.simonhampel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/20080922-40d_7024-500x333.jpg)
With the zoo being fairly quiet (weekday and raining), I was able to take the opportunity to spend some time in the nocturnal house taking photos with long exposure times. I set the camera up on the flat area of the fence around the Bilby enclosure, and then with the wide-angle lens looking across the room I tried a number of different settings (without using the flash) to see what I could capture. The Bilby’s were mostly cooperative – they were too busy eating to hop around – but I didn’t even bother with most of the other animals who were all too active to show up in a long exposure photo. The photo below is one I thought worked quite well from only a half-second exposure at 10mm focal length.
![Adelaide Zoo Nocturnal House - 0.5 second exposure](https://www.simonhampel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/20080922-40d_7163-500x333.jpg)
I will be uploading more photos to the Adelaide Zoo Photo Gallery on ZooChat.
Tweets from today
- In Murray Bridge visiting my parents
- 22nd September, 2008 6:59 PM from web
- heading up the freeway to Murray Bridge
- 22nd September, 2008 4:30 PM from web
- in Adelaide briefly taking care of some business. Miserable weather :(
- 22nd September, 2008 1:48 PM from web
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