Tasmanian devils

I think I understand why they're called "devils." They've got red ears and mouths, and they make a screaming-growling sound. Kinda cute, though. And busy. Busy or sleeping. They're also endangered because of disease.

All photos are from the Columbus Zoo, except the last.

Mustard

Also Mustard. He's the easy one to identify because he has the largest white markings.

Thyme or Sprout. I wish I were standing there, although the glass provides outstanding reflections, which is probably why I wasn't standing there.

Busy

They often have brief conversations like this.

Devils are scavengers and often eat communally. The white thing is a rabbit.

Snoozing at the Toledo Zoo

If there's an itch...

What do you do when you have an itch?

Nubian goat

Bali myna

Angora goat

markhor

The picture of the buffalo weaver is pretty horrible because a shutter at 1/15s is not fast enough to stop motion. That means there's a lot of motion blur, which makes the bird appear out of focus. Motion blur can be good, though, and I think the curve of the leg's motion is pretty cool. The blue is the tag on the leg, captured a couple of times.

white-headed buffalo weaver

Tyler, a Reeves's muntjac

Mustard, a Tasmanian devil

western cattle egret

sunbittern

All photos are from the Columbus Zoo except the sunbittern's, which is from the Cincinnati Zoo.

Software to the rescue

I'm hesitant to manipulate my photos in software. I want to use my slowly-improving photographic skills to produce the best picture possible. I also don't have much interest in learning to use the software and I don't want to spend time running each picture I decide to keep through the software. However, software can fix some photographic mistakes.

I'm learning about my camera's "program mode" and have sometimes used it instead of automatic mode. Besides learning about program mode, I need to learn to check the camera's settings because the settings stick after turning the camera off or switching to automatic mode and back.

I finished my latest trip to the Columbus Zoo in the reptile house, and I had apparently set the white balance to fluorescent light because many of the animals live under such light. (Being able to set the white balance is one reason I use program instead of automatic mode.) My first shots of young, gray flamingos at the Toledo Zoo days later used the same leftover setting, and they came out with a blue tint. With software from Nikon I was able to easily change the white balance to daylight.

Left: Photo from camera with fluorescent white balance. Right: White balance corrected to daylight in software

Another setting I've forgotten is exposure compensation (another reason to use program mode). I don't remember why I had chosen exposure value +1, but that's what was leftover from a previous zoo visit. The value is right there in the display on top of the camera, but did I look? Nope.

The alligator below is nearly black, but the photo from the camera doesn't show that, and the tip of her tongue is washed-out. I was able to reset the exposure compensation to zero in the Nikon software and get a more accurate image.

 

Top: Image from camera with EV +1. Bottom: Exposure compensation corrected to EV 0 in software

My ignorance of EV +1 continued when I left the alligators and visited the Tasmanian devils. I corrected the exposure compensation in software, but, in this case, I prefer the original image to the corrected image. In the bottom photo, the devil's body is mostly a featureless black blob while the body in the top photo shows some subtle shading.

Top: Image from camera with EV +1. Bottom: Exposure compensation set to +0 in software

Besides remembering to check the white balance and exposure compensation settings before shooting, I need to remember to check the camera's mode the first place.