Boaz Wildlife Photography*: April 2025

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Komodo Dragons

I've visited four zoos that have Komodo dragons.

Columbus, July 2019

Minnesota, December 2019

Cincinnati, December 2021

I continue to have trouble with white balance when shooting certain reptiles indoors. It's not the reptiles' fault; it's the enclosures' lighting. I'm never satisfied with my pictures of the Malagasy leaf-tailed gecko at the Columbus Zoo, for example. I've tried cloudy, shade, fluorescent, and specific color temperatures, but none gave me colors on the camera's screen that matched what I saw.

At the Toledo Zoo, in March this year (2025), a Komodo dragon was at his or her posing rock and looking fine. The rocks and dirt are sort of tan, but my first shot didn't look quite right. I have no patience for this, so I tried only two other settings before moving on.

Daylight

4000K (I admit I rather like this one.)

Auto

Toledo has at least two of the world's largest lizards. Here's the other one:

40 minutes later...

Back to the first one:

I've adjusted a focus setting, so videos are more in-focus over all, but the lens hunts every time it refocuses, which I find annoying.

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Orangutans in Columbus

I visited the Columbus Zoo's Bornean orangutans October 1, 2024.

Dumplin was separated from Clementine and Khali.

Or was she?

A docent who was there explained that there is a similar grid inside, and Dumplin weaves fabric through it. She has not done that outside, though.

Khali has a lock!

(This reminded me of an orangutan in a zoo that hid a key in his mouth and used it to open a door. My memory was faulty in that there was no key, which makes the story even better. Read or listen to RadioLab.)

It appears that kind of lock is used to secure things in the enclosure. In the first photo, one of these locks attaches the green cloth to the grid. An orangutan could probably detach a hook or carabiner easily.