A day at the zoo...

I bought a camera last year, with the intention of emersing myself in the art of photography, learning the tricks of the trade and actually justifying the expense of the thing. Typically, this all became another item on my to-do list.

Enter Mum.

Mum has been through a few digital cameras over the last 4 years, each time increasing her knowledge and know how, and over the last few months, taking some stunning shots. She has recently upgraded to the same camera as I - the Canon EOS 350D SLR, and has certainly made the most of her purchase.

She's also decided to get me off my butt, booking me into a day at the zoo for a 4 hour beginners photography course. What a bloody fun time I had.

Mum arrived at my place at 7am on Saturday. Yes, that is early. Then my darling boy drove us to Circular Quay to catch the boat to the zoo. After an energy laden brekky, we jumped on the boat to head across the water. We asked for directions at the bottom entry, and got given a lift to the top entry in one of the zebra striped zoo-mobiles. Kinda funny. We were running a bit late so the lift was appreciated.

The next few hours were spent learning about the basic features of the camera, what makes a good shot, and how to improvise with lighting and composition when the natural conditions are not ideal. I think I had a smile on my face the entire time. It was great fun. We walked around with the cameras for four hours, eagerly pleading with the animals to pose for us. Although that was a bit of an up hill battle, I ended up taking about 320 shots, of which 20 or so were actually good. It was a really good day.

The other fun bit was that mum and I were laughing pretty much the whole day, and one of the photographers who was instructing us wanted to take a few portrait shots. He took most of them on his camera, heaps of me on my own, but lots with mum too. He also grabbed my camera and took a few. Here are a couple of mum and I:




And here are a few of the photos I was happy with:







I'm definately going to book myself into the longer course to learn more. Thanks for getting me off my butt ma!

Have a great week everyone.

P.S
Weight is undercontrol. Hovering at about 66kgs, which I can deal with for now. Still keen to get back down to 63.5 but hey, it's only a number right?