Third zoo in just over three weeks, third nice zoo visit in a row. We drove to the Orsa Björnpark today and got lucky with the weather, it felt like a risk because the forecast said it would be half sunny but it was actually quite foggy and the fog didn’t start clearing out until the afternoon so we had no problems with the light reflecting from the fences.
We walked around the zoo three times, and saw lazy tigers twice, only way to shoot them was from the high viewing platform looking straight down at the animals so I gave up on them. But the other cats – snow leopards and persian leopards – we a whole lot better and I actually got my best persian leopard pictures to date.
And just to finish off the visit, the polar bear got very playful with a canister in the water, the canister itself may not be so nice but it was hugely entertaining to watch (and photograph) the playing!
The fog was so thick that the pictures were a bit washed out, even from this short distance, so I had to get quite hard handed with the post processing to bring out the textures and colours. (250/365)
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Got to see some nice behaviour with the persian leopard taking time on grooming itself
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This was the first time I got pictures of the kodiak bear. Here it’s sniffing the pine trunk.
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Having walked around the park twice, we were bit hungry and made a pit stop at the restaurant on top of the mountain. Very nice views when the fog started clearing.
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Back with the leopards, the persian leopard was done grooming and was walking around instead. Walking straight towards me, I got a whole bunch of pictures with a missed focus, but all I really need is one sharp frame and this was it.