Wombat Stew

Wombats taking shelter from a Melbourne day full of on-off rain and wind. They all looked so cute snuggled up together underground in their burrow, not that the sand and ground looks very comfortable but at least it's dry! My boyfriend played the role of my photography spotter, pinching my arm and pointing out interesting things for me to shoot. What a sweetheart. I did take some nice photographs of the wombats here but I missed the one on the far left rolling over and scratching itself and the flash gives a very different colour of the fur of the wombats compared to those taken without the flash. I always have a lot of fun with him when we go out to tourist places and I get to bring my camera along and he doesn't mind. What a shame he doesn't like to be a show pony and pose for me.

Skippy

I was absolutely thrilled when I went to the Melbourne Zoo with my boyfriend- it was my choice of location for the date as a way to make up for being an hour late for the last date. I don't make a very good girlfriend sometimes though; if there's a camera around my neck I'm asking him to open up sealed bags of 120mm slide film that I can't manage and I generally ignore him until a.) I run out of film using an analogue camera and b.) the batteries on my digital camera give out on me. 

He's lovely though and manages to put up with me when I'm being a pain in the butt, as a good boyfriend should be. These photographs are from our mosey around the native Australian animal exhibits so there were lots of kangaroos and emus. 

Another wonderful thing my boyfriend does when he's with my and I have the camera around my neck is that he will gently tap on my shoulder and point in front of my nose- I nearly missed a great big brown kangaroo that was right behind us and casually hopped past and under the fence. You can see the arm of my boyfriend in the photograph with no zoom, it was that close to us. He was worried that it would take an interest to our bags since we had brought food from home that we had made in the kitchen with us. The kangaroo didn't seem very interested though, he was really laid-back. There were kangaroos of all shapes and sizes there, even some little grey coloured joeys were out and about. Although there wasn't a lot of sunlight for them to enjoy and bask in.

You're a lizard Harry

The many various and beautiful lizards of the reptile house in Melbourne Zoo. Being a lizard would be terrible because it would be like having seasonal affective disorder all the time and being weird colours and scaly. It has suddenly occurred to me that if I am to become a veterinarian and work with animals, some of those animals are going to be lizards. Oh dear, I don't mind reptiles and I can handle snakes because they're actually quite nice and interesting. Reptiles just look a bit complicated though.

Ever since seeing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone I always wanted to see a small, fat, mean boy behind a case of glass and a Brazilian snake making a desperate break for freedom. Which leads me to the little GIF at the bottom for you all. You're a lizard Harry!

Swan

There's has to be something said about the beauty of a swan upon dark, inky black murky water. This was taken at the Melbourne Zoo and I don't think it was a proper exhibit, more like letting some of the birds have a wander and swim across the various patches of water that are located all around the zoo. Ripples created by the faint rain that threatened to hammer down when thunder struck scaring the baby elephants. I was prepared and brought my poncho from Seaworld in California and my boyfriend was smart and brought an umbrella which I'm sure he would have shared if I needed it. He got sick from that date because it was cold and windy and we decided to eat sandwiches and food we both brought from home while sitting in a low, fat branched tree. No one bothered to tell us of though and it was funny to watch children come towards us and climb the tree. Kids say some of the funniest things.

Furball

It was pretty difficult to take a picture of the lions with the many metal grates in the way but thankfully for digital cameras using automatic zoom and focus it's just a matter of holding your finger over the shutter button and being patient! Since patience is a virtue I'm thankful that it payed off for me and I have a lovely photograph of a lion from the Melbourne Zoo.

One Eyed Monster

I didn't realise until I uploaded these photographs that the poor leopard only had one eye and that it's eye socket appears to be healed shut :(
I thought it was just a little squinty on that day or maybe it was just trying to save some energy and relax.

Hello Possum

I have a tendency to paparazzi the local possums that think it's a smart idea to sit in the trees outside my bedroom window, especially when I seem to hit the metaphorical wall and need a flash of brilliance to strike. That's when I use a brilliant camera flash to dazzle the possums.

Sunsets

Something about the combination of a sunset in Winter and a faint little drizzle of rain brought out some amazing colours in my street this week, and since the trees are all bare since they also dropped their leaves I got some nice effects out of it as a little study break. It's funny, sort of in the middle of my semester I felt like I had no time for relaxing and taking a few quick snaps but it does sort of help me. I also took a few photographs of this scene using my Diana F+ Mr. Pink using 800 ASO film and a telephoto lens as well as having the back panel taped up to prevent unpredictable light leaks. I hope the lens was "focused" but then again the definition of focused can get very blurred with those plastic cameras...

Moving at the speed of light

That's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit! I love how low security is to keep the giant tortoises inside, since they move so slowly, are too heavy to lift and cannot be possibly stolen from their exhibit without anyone noticing that a.) one of them is missing from their enclosure, and b.) that the person who lifted one is probably suffer from acute hernia and they also have a rather lumpy parcel concealed under their trench coat. I did originally plan to go to the zoo and use my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack since sometimes the giant tortoises do coast near the fence of their enclosure but I used a canvas backpack instead and they were in the middle of the enclosure or sitting under the heat lamp anyway so there was no loss there.

Butterfly Effect

The best parts of the Melbourne Zoo to hide in when the whether becomes cold and wet and horrible is either the Butterfly House or the Reptile Enclosures. A lot of people tend to prefer the butterflies though because the humid temperatures are a little higher than the heat from the lamps used to make the cold blooded reptiles a little more lively. Also the elephant and orangutan enclosures have been revamped so there is a greater focus on Asian animals. Some of my favourite photographs were taken inside the butterfly house on my zoo trip with my boyfriend but I didn't end up taking that many since the whole place was so crowded and the butterflies weren't landing on anyone really. I sort of laughed to myself watching a little girl sneakily push her hand towards the edges of leaves where butterflies sat. And I felt sad seeing the beautiful insects with torn wings, wrecked from callous and disrespectful zoo patrons. They only have a week to live and people destroy the beauty of their wings. It's such a shame.

Teddy Bear

A happy Grizzly bear munching away on something hiding away from the viewing window in the other side. Luckily for me I have 18 times optical zoom and can easily capture the soft brown fur of this amazing creature. Despite the fact that the teddy bear is an integrated part of Western culture and popular culture, the real animal is so different to the little stuff toy imitations. The arch of the shoulders and body is sharp and makes the shape of the bear look off kilter. If you choose to draw it rather than photograph you'd think maybe it was more like a caricature or cartoon rather than the real thing.