Catching up on pictures from the past few weekends! Two weeks ago, we visited Whipsnade Zoo near Luton. It’s more like a wildlife reserve than a traditional zoo—probably the closest you’ll get to an African safari experience in the UK.
It’s on the pricey side (£20 per adult plus £4 for parking in a field), but compared to a real African safari, it’s a steal! They’ve done a great job with space, and even with hundreds of visitors on the weekend, it never felt crowded. 🦒🐘
Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 100-400mm – 1/1000s f/5.0, ISO 400 – Chiara was unimpressed by the elephant show (first time she sees a real elephant – so now she will think they can all lay down when asked) but it was quite nice and distracting.
Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 100-400mm – Left Chiara keeping warm with Sab. Right a Mara in the park wandering around. The park is huge, we walked and probably covered a quarter of it in an afternoon.
t was cold and overcast—perfect conditions for portraits and animal photography, especially since we weren’t there for the magical early morning or late evening light. We brought out our trusty safari lens, the 100-400mm L IS, which only sees action about twice a year these days. Every shot from the trip was taken with it, and it really shone! The open layout of the park made it easy to capture animals against natural-looking backgrounds, so you’d barely notice they were in enclosures.
We spotted giraffes, a tiger, chimpanzees, and an ostrich, among others. But checking the website later, we realized we didn’t even see half the animals they have there! 🐅🦒🐒
Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 100-400mm – 1/800s f/5.6, ISO 400 – Really colourful flamingos, actually the saturation has even been decreased on this picture. This is where 400mm is particularly useful.
Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 100-400mm – 1/125s f/7.1, ISO 400 – Meeting the cousin. hiara was especially fascinated by the chimpanzees—both the real ones and the statue! She was completely captivated, watching them for a solid 15 minutes (which is a lot for her). Maybe it’s because her dad’s monkey impressions are just so convincing! 🐒🙊
Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 100-400mm – The Lemur feed was particularly impressive as the animals came very close (way to close for my long lens !). They are cute and nice, so obviously everyone love them. We had a great time watching them play and eat, their enclosure is very well organised with plenty of nice photo opportunities.
Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 100-400mm – 1/640s f/7.1, ISO 100 – Nice flowers on our way out of the Zoo.