64/365: TRAVELED TO AFRICA

5 MAR 13

 

I traveled to Africa via the zoo today. I said yesterday that I was really excited for today and isn't it such a wonderful feeling when life lives up to your expectations! The weather was a perfect 70 degrees with a wonderful cool breeze, not a cloud in the sky and the zoo was free (did I just rhyme that...seriously...what...mad skills)!

 

The zoo got some really bad press because for the longest time, the day directly after most Holidays, admission was free all day. Everyone knew this, and thus everyone went to the zoo on those days. Unfortunately the zoo sits directly in the heart of the Medical center which was a logistical nightmare. You can look out the south entrance of the zoo and there is Ben Taub, aka, the gun shot hospital, and then right next door to that is Herman, aka, the heart attack hospital, so you can see why trying to shove an ambulance through the traffic nightmare could be a problem, so they basically said, we'll do free days, but only on the second Tuesday of every month, and not during the summer, from 2-6 only. Of course everyone is in school or work during this time, so there isn't much traffic. I was meaning to go in January, forgot, February, forgot, but this time, I put up a giant you better not forget sign.

 

I arrived 20 till and the line was snaked around the lot, but the parking was still plentiful. Most of the school groups were leaving so that freed up lots of space. I went by my lonesome because I really wanted to focus on taking shots in these difficult conditions. You are really screwed at a zoo. More on that later. Anyway, standing in line behind me were these two black people. I didn't want to turn around and look but with no one to talk to, I basically stood in line and listened to their entire conversation as the people in front of me were I think from South America; their Spanish sounded different then the more traditional Spanish I'm used too, so I couldn't really translate it all that well. Anyway, the mouths on these people...it was N-word this, N-word that which always frustrates me b/c why would you want to call you or someone of your same race that, idiots! Anyway, they got into this conversation about the one guys son, and the other ladies niece and the terrible twos. The lady said, she didn't really think they were a thing until she went to her nieces birthday party who was turning three. She said she tried to give her money as a present, but the child apparently rolled her eyes and screamed I want cake, not your money. Then the conversation shifted to baby names and how the guy said that his boy had him rolling when they were talking about what black people name their kids. He said his friend said it was always something black people want but can't get, like diamond, Mercedes, Jordan (s). He said his friend really had him laughing when he said, "water bill paid." Then for some reason as the line finally started to move, the lady started saying how she always wanted to be an underwear model for Victoria's Secret but she would never do it because its really "Victor's secret." She said somewhere on the internet, she read that Victoria is really a victor and they really only hire transgender models to wear the underwear, hence their really skinny bodies and huge boobs, and she would never want to be or look like that. Um...okay. By that time, the line broke into 8, and they went one way, and I went the other. It turns out they were a couple. I thought they were just friends and a bit older, but they were holding hands and looked to be barely in their 20s if that.

 

So on to the adventure. The zoo is 55 acres. You read that right, 55 which I definitely walked at least twice in my adventures! There was a lot to explore. On the map they actually have a dotted line zone in case you are there to get your exercise in, with a marked mile long trail. I headed straight for my spirit animal (ended up going the wrong way twice...I know...I had a map but I didn't really look at it! and had to double and triple back)...anywho, they had a feeding right at 2, of my beloved giraffes. They just named the newest baby after former Rocket Yao Ming. They were lovely and out and about and there wasn't a big crowd. It was kind of lame because you had to pay to get the opportunity to feed the giraffes which I declined. I mean, its cool and all, but they just fed them lettuce from a platform which didn't seem all that exciting in relation to just watching them interact with one another.

 

Okay, so my goal was to really tackle shooting images of animals in the wild, yet confined to the parameters of a zoo. This presents a massive amount of problems. Let me explain.

 

1. Fences/gates/glass/obstructions are everywhere. The above is some amazingly tight cropping because there is a huge fence above, and to the right of this creature, and if you can believe it, I AM shooting through a chain link fence! I think I did pretty well on this one, but that joy was a bit per-mature because that didn't translate to a lot of the other exhibits. Those obstructions take away from the sort of naturalness of a shot. There were these great steer type creatures with HUGE horns, but right in front was a huge gate and they were resting and didn't move, so all the shots are fence, fence, gate, fence. Glass is often dirty with prints and paws inside and out and don't forget the background...its hard to make something look real when there is a giant sign right behind it, or a wooden fence that doesn't exist in nature.

 

2. People. Crowds are an annoyance beyond belief. For one, I'm not an a-hole. I've been to the zoo several times in my life. I'm not going to stand and block an entire exhibit when some little 4 year old comes along and wants to see the tiger for the first time, so often times I will generously step aside or more often times, I just set up in the back and shoot over people's shoulders. So there I am at the lemur zone, far in the back behind a crowd 3 rows thick and right when the one lemur smacks another one for trying to steal his food, guy walks right into my shot. I'd stood there and walked around for 15 minutes trying to get at something more interesting then the one just eating a leaf with his back turned to me, and then for all my patience, and all my not getting in the way ruined. This happened 3 different times. What do you do, shove the little kids aside so you can get up front??

 

3. Lighting...holy #$%@! man! I practically have arthritis from having to manipulate the settings to get the right light. We're talking 2 pm light which is strong to begin with, then you have exhibits half in and out of shade and the animals who like to stay half in and out of it as well, and then trees and all kinds of exhibit bits either blocking or funneling the light. For this shot above, I spent nearly 30 minutes, and coming back twice, just trying to get it because this is a huge cliff facing the sun. Half of the exhibit is in complete shadow and the other half in sun facing the sun. So the creature moves, you've got to change those settings.

 

4. The animals...are not your friends. With the exception of maybe 3 of them, they don't make it easy for you to get a shot. They do what they do and don't care that you need the picture, so you have to wait and wait and be patient and the action is for like a second. There and you missed it. I shot on manual for most of this trip and again, it was changing those setting as fast as I could and trying to pre-focus sometimes on a specific spot or tracking the animal with the lens.

 

5. Distance. Everything is in a cage or behind a fence some ways off except for the petting zoo section, so as much as I'd love to climb in with the bears, its not happening. So you just hope your lens can handle wherever these creatures are high, low.

 

So it was quite a lot of work. I'll put some more photos up soon, but I definitely took on this fight. Its partially why I didn't want anyone with me. It's hard enough to get all these things right by yourself, let alone with someone else who most likely wouldn't be as interested or as concentrated on what they are doing. I've tried buddy shooting, but it really cheapened the experience for me, because if you see something that catches your eye, that other person kind of trots over and starts shooting and then its like, okay this thing I found is not really as special because there's a practical replica of the thing on someone else's stream. It cheapens it. There can't be two "the first car's" you know.

 

After my adventure, I decided to take the long way home. I wanted to count how many lights were between the zoo and my house and turns out there are 24. Woah! When I did touch down, unfortuantely I had a really bad blood sugar spike. My hands were literally shaking. I had a light breakfast which I told myself considering I'm going to be out for so long and walking around, I should have had a bigger one, but I packed my usual emergency snacks, this time some water and a pack of baby carrots which I ate at the zoo, but I guess it wasn't enough. After a good meal and 45 minutes, I was somewhat back to myself, but I felt really tired. I hate these things because its like someone has cut off the lights in my body and it saps my energy completely. I ended up laid out on the couch with a major headache, so I took it easy for the rest of the afternoon. When I did sort of come back too, I got a chance to crack open this now fantastic photography book about early Houston. Extremely fascinating to see the city grow up through this book. There were some stunning buildings and I'm like, I know this is like 100 years later, but where are these buildings and how come I've never heard of them...but it turns out a major fire in the early 20's took out something like 48 blocks of the city. Can you imagine!!! Schools, churches, banks, and especially these gorgeous theaters, all gone just like that because a 38 mi/hr wind just kept fanning the flames and basically took the city down to its knees.

 

In other news...I might have spoke too soon on the no donation bit because Guess who reached her fundraising goal today! Meeeeeeeeeeeeee! Last night, I got 9 donations.I was excited to reach my goal. Still...though...I sent this out to 75 people...and only a 9 person response. You know what...I'm going to let it go. I made my goal. We're going to be doing some good, and that's all I can ask for. Wiiiiisssshhhhhhhaaaaaaaa (that's the sound of me letting it go) LOL.

 

OKAY this IS a really really long blog now, but I'm going to keep going, k. Thanks.

 

Bought some seed the other day and some potting soil. I didn't want to get a cart, so I picked up this 1.5 cu ft. of soil back and was hauling it by hand all the way fro one end of the garden center to the register only to hear, sorry, the register is broken, you have to take it inside to the register....it was a WTF moment for sure. The guy didn't even offer to attempt to get me a cart even after seeing my struggle with this now loads heavy bag because ironically I'd just done a 48 minute kettle bell and dumbell workout for arms, so they were on fire!!! So I walked the 8 blocks to the register on the opposite side of the store. Originally I thought the sale sign said teh soil was $5, but on the receipt it read $3 and some change. So I was super happy. I went to the 99 cents store and got 48 drinking cup sized peat pots for $3. Home Depot wanted $7 for the same amount but half the size. There is literally nothing the 99 cent store doesn't have. They even just started selling tomato cages and the same plastic and wire garden fencing Home Depot has for triple that. (Sings) I'm gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket I-I-I'm huntin',lookin for a come up, this is f____g awesome (Nailed it, LOL!) So I get home and put this soil in the garage for the next days seed potting only to find out FOR ALL OF THAT trouble, I bought the wrong soil. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! So I had to put it back in my trunk, haul is back, beg a lady in the parking lot for her cart, return it, and ended up buying the right soil which was double the price of the garden soil. FAIL.

Done