Saturday was the sort of summer day that could make me like summer. It was warm and sunny, not too hot, and with no trace of the stifling mugginess that we get all too often these days. It was just the right sort of day for spending a lot of time outside. Almost on a whim, we decided to make a trip to the zoo.
A bunch more photos are in the slideshow below.
Thanks to my participation in Project 365, I really made an effort to take photos. John even convinced me to switch lenses and use my zoom telephoto, something that in my laziness, I have almost never done. What’s more, I used manual focus a lot. Manual. Focus. I felt so frickin’ badass. Except that, you know, I was at the zoo. Do badasses go to the zoo?
collecting tokens 
Fabulous, fantastic photos! Thanks so much for posting them!
I especially like the two of Phoebe and Theo sitting at the picnic table, and all of the giraffe photos. Giraffes are such goofy creatures. I love that you managed to capture a moment of blue giraffe tongue!
Speaking of giraffes, I made another, somewhat over-the-top submission to the One Million Giraffes project, which I believe constitutes incontrovertible proof that I’m slightly crazy:
http://www.onemilliongiraffes.com/?id=63793
Finally, back on-topic, the mathematician in me wants to point out that
1. you are clearly a bad-ass, having taken these gorgeous pictures; and
2. you go to the zoo;
therefore we can conclude that bad-asses do indeed go to the zoo.
Where did you go? That’s not Roger Williams!
You got some incredible shots. I have gotten so lazy, I haven’t taken a picture with anything but my iPhone in MONTHS. Perhaps vacation will change that, though I don’t feel especially motivated by more amateurish shots of the beach.
those are quite nice – although it always makes me sad to see animals behind bars.
how did the manual focus work out for you? i’ve found that i just can’t get sharp images without split image focusing, which the DSLR lenses just don’t seem to have.
I wish our summer was like yours! It is always way too hot and way too muggy. I’d die of heat stroke if we tried to go to the zoo during summer.
Of course bad-asses go to the zoo.
The bad-asses are IN the zoo.
I can’t live without my telephoto. Just. Can’t. And I use both auto and manual, depending.
These shots are really classy. Especially I like the Phoebe and the deer shot from the rotating display. And, yeah, the shots at the picnic table, especially the first one. I suspect your kids will love these shots all their lives as they relive the zoo experience.
Technically really great – you had harsh sun and handled it spectacularly well.