Turs

Baby Caucasian Turs

One of the highlights of Hollywild's Photography Day event was getting to see these Caucasian Turs. Unfortunately, I don't recall if they are Western or Eastern Turs. Turs are from the Caucasus Mountains in southern Russia. The San Diego Zoo is the only other facility in the US with this same variety of Turs. The Turs at Hollywild are part of a breading program and are not on display to the general public. They are not very large animals, and they were quite shy with all of us sitting there photographing them. They spent a lot of time hiding from us and watching us as they didn't know if we were going to eat them or not. I'm sure the large cameras and lenses didn't help either.

More after the jump.

Female Caucasian Turs

There were a couple of babies in the herd already. The one in the top photograph was the oldest and most outgoing of the two. The other infant was completely black, quite cute, and very shy. It stayed in the shade so much I didn't get any really good shots of it. The two kids should have a few more playmates in a couple of weeks as several of the females are expecting calves. The female in the second photograph above was one of the more visible of the animals. She may have been the designated "lookout" for all I know about them. The thing that I find most interesting about the Turs are their eyes. Look closely at the female and you'll notice that her irises are rectangular and not round. Quite an unusual feature I believe.

Prior to the event, I didn't know that Hollywild participated in breeding programs like this, but I suppose I really shouldn't be that surprised. It is good to know that a place here near Spartanburg, South Carolina is helping preserve some of the world's wildlife.

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Proud Watusi

Proud Watusi

This is a Watusi. It is a type of African cattle. Hollywild Animal park in Spartanburg County has several of these in its' safari area. They have some of the most impressive horns that I've ever seen.

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Lunch Time

Zebra'a Lunch

During the Photography Day event at Hollywild Animal Park near Wellford, South Carolina, we were were able to drive around the "Safari" area in our cars at our own pace. The Safari area has a large herd of deer, llamas, emus, watusis (big African cattle), bison, and other cattle. This photograph is of one of the zebras nibbling on some hay near lunch time. I was starting to get hungry myself, although not for hay.

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Hollywild Photography Day

Tank

This past weekend, I went to Hollywild Animal Park for their Photography Day event. This was the second time that they have had the event. The first time was last month. It is held in conjunction with the Spartan Photo Center who arranged to have a Nikon representative present as well. The Nikon rep was there to answer questions about equipment as well as with a full stock of camera bodies and lenses that could be borrowed during the event. I borrowed one lens after lunch. The new 70-200mm, f/2.8 VRII zoom ... such a sweet lens. I want one!

More after the jump.

As part of the event, participants had access to some areas that are usually off-limits to the general public. First, we got to get close to Tank, the park's "working" white rhino. Tank was a tad camera shy at first, but he did eventually come over to pose for us. Today's photograph is one of the my favorites that I got of him while we were visiting with him.

It was quite a fun day. There were a lot of photographers at the event. I know that a group came down from Charlotte, North Carolina for it. My guess is somewhere around 40 or so photographers in all made it out to the park. The weather was simply perfect for it as well. It wasn't too hot, it wasn't too cold, and it was a nice partly cloudy day with plenty of sun and just enough clouds to keep the skies interesting.

Stay tuned. There is more to come from the day.

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Surprise #2

The Muncher!

And here is the second surprise. When I first saw it, I thought it was a branch floating in the middle of the lake. Then I zoomed in and realized that it was a beaver. There is a beaver in the lake/pond of Cleveland Park in the middle of Spartanburg, SC near downtown! Guess he's an urban beaver.

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Hollywild Animal Park

Peacock Strut

I apologize for the lack of posts recently. I had been busy getting ready for my parents to visit. They were bringing my son back and staying the weekend. So, I had to clean the house and get ready for them.

On Saturday, we went out to Hollywild Animal Park. Hollywild is a local exotic animal park that trains animals for Hollywood. Several of their animals have appeared in movies, television shows, commercials, advertising and promotional campaigns. They also have a small zoo set up to earn money in order to pay expenses for the animal's upkeep. The park also has a very popular Christmas lights display during the holiday season. In the zoo there are various exhibits, gift shop, picnic shelters, and a "safari" ride through their "Outback" which is home to European deer, Sitka deer, emus, bison, watusi, and other cattle. More after the jump.



My son really enjoyed feeding the baby goats and some deer. We got some nice photographs and had a good time. The weather was hot, but there was a nice overcast that softened the sunlight. I shot all of the photographs with my 18-135mm lens. I chose this one because I knew I would need the flexibility to capture wide and zoomed shots. It worked well and I'm happy with what I was able to capture.

The full gallery is here.

Emus:

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

Peacocks

The Bold

The Beautiful

The Cocky

The End

Hoof Animals:

Alphonso

Solitary

Lakota

The "Outback"

Thanks for reading. Have fun and keep shooting.

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Greenville Zoo

I spent an afternoon at the zoo with my son a couple of months ago. Of course, I took my camera with me. The Greenville Zoo is not very large, but it is a nice little zoo for a morning or afternoon family trip. It is part of Greenville’s Cleveland Park and is next to the playground area. In other words this is a lot for the kids to do if you need them to run off some energy. The full gallery is here, but there are a couple of shots that I really liked from that afternoon.



The leopard’s profile shot above is one of my favorite photographs. (click on the photos to see them larger.) The zoo has renovated some of the enclosures including the ones for the big cats. Now there are semi-enclosed observation areas with plate-glass. It affords a much better view than the old wire fences and ditch. When my son and I got to the leopard’s enclosure, this one leopard was lying down next to the glass in some shade. It was a popular place and all of the parents and children were crowding around trying to see the leopard or get photographs. We got our turn to get close, but the leopard was just lying down. It seemed to be taking a nap. I took a couple of shots, but they weren’t that great since it was just the top of it’s’ head and back. Just as I was standing up to leave, the leopard sat up and posed. I took a couple of shots before someone stood in front of me. The shot you see is the best of them. It was like the leopard was an Old Hollywood starlet that said that famous line, “I’m ready for my close-up now, Mr. Deville.” I felt really lucky to get this shot. The only flaw with it originally, was an ugly green flare just behind its ear. The plate-glass had a green tint to it, so I think that is where the flare came from. However, I used a color control point in Nikon’s Capture NX to get rid of that localized problem. The color control points make localized fixes like this so easy.

Until we got to the leopard’s enclosure, I thought this shot of a lioness was going to be my best keeper of the day. When we got home and I pulled the shot up in Capture NX though, the entire picture had a green hue to it due to the plate-window. I know it was the window. However, a color cast like that is very easy to correct in Capture NX. If I remember, I may have treated it like a color balance problem since it was affecting the entire image. The result is the photograph you see to the left.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include the following photographs. This giraffe was eating wheat crackers that visitors could feed to them. As it ate the crackers, it made all kinds of comical faces.






Zoos are great places to spend time with your family and practice some photography. You might even learn some things about some of the animals there, not to mention having a good time.

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