Photo of the week #26: A laazy seal

As I mentioned in one of my last posts, I was chosen to be one of 100 testers for Sigma’s revamped 18-250 mm, f 1:3.5-6.3 DC Macro HSM lens at the beginning of May. The test phase has  since finished, I handed in my 4 best photos, wrote a  review for SIGMA and received the message that I can keep the lens :-) The results of the lens test haven’t been published in the magazine yet so I can’t post my own review yet. But I can share some of the photos I since shot with this amazing lens!

I took the lens on a tour of Hagenbeck Zoo here in Hamburg during the test phase. It was my second trip to the zoo since I moved to Hamburg and the first time that I’ve seen the newly opened “Eismeer” exhibition. They’ve got polar bears, different types of penguins, walruses, seals etc. now and visitors can see them from the sides of the enclosures as well as from the lower ground via huge glass windows. There were quite a few curious seals diving up and down right in front of the visitors but one larger was just lazily laying in the back on his rock and snoozing. It was quite a distance to cover (8-10 m) but the lens easily managed it and I ended up with this lovely photo.

specifications: focal length 250mm, f 6.3, exposure 1/250, no cropping or editing

It didn’t make one my 4 best photos for the lens test as I had too many really good animal photos. But it is a good photo of the week to share with you guys. Hope you like it!

xx, D

Photo(s) of the week #19: A visit to the Hagenbeck Zoo

I’ve been living in Hamburg for a little over two years now and until recently, I hadn’t been to the Hagenbeck Zoo. It’s a shame  that I waited so long but money was short all last year as I was still paying off my student loan from UNI. But I’ve paid it all off  (a great feeling!) and back in June I unexpectedly had a few days off. So I grabbed the opportunity and spent a full day at the ZOO!

Hagenbeck Zoo is Germany’s largest privately owned Zoo. It first opened its doors back in 1907 and has since grown to an area of about 25 hectares. The variety of animals is huge, elephants, lions, camels, orang-utans,  giraffes, zebras, flamingoes and many, many more. In 2007 they’ve added an aquarium with a large variety of tropical fish, several African crocodiles and many reptiles, spiders and other animals from various countries.

Assam and his mum

My main interest was probably seeing the baby elephant Assam who was born on April 13th this year. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baby elephant in a Zoo before (at least not that I can remember…). If you follow the map they hand you at the entrance then the elephant house is the first on your route, right next to the souvenir shop. And there was the little elephant with his mother and a few other elephants. Assam was just over 2 months old on this pic. Quite cute, right? There is a little house nearby where voluntary workers prepare bags with veggies. If you leave a little donation you can take one and hand feed alpacas, goats, elephants and other animals on your trip around. They prefer if you don’t bring food from home as the wrong food might make the animals sick or become overweight. I got a bag and started my tour. Most animals were still very sleepy, the tiger didn’t move at all and the lions were lying on a platform of rocks with their legs up in the air snoozing. I slowly took my tour around, seeing camels, giraffes, bisons, alpakas, penguins…

White storch

Apart from animals not native to our country Hagenbeck Zoo also offers a couple of animals that we have had here for a long time. Gooats for example, horses, donkeys, pigs etc.  I particularly liked the storks. You rarely see them around these days unless you live in an area where they have their nesting grounds. The only large bird I have ever seen flying around here in Germany was a heron who used to catch the goldfish out of my neighbour’s pond. I took my tour around and ended up at the elephants again. This time they were outside and if you  had a foodbag, you could handfeed them. The enclosure is built so that they can reach over the ditch with their trunks and you just handed it to them with your flat hand and they would gently take it. It’s fun!

A ring-tailed lemur

It started to rain a little so I made my way to the aquarium. Getting inside the first little hall we were greeted by a bunch of ring-tailed lemurs. Their zookeeper was close by but they were basically free to roam around. Visitors who had bought a package of food in the souvenir shop (they offer special pre-packed food there) fed them with it. There was also a tiny baby climbing around but it was really too quick and too dark to take a photo of it. Flash wasn’t allowed in there and it’s difficult to get a steady shot in the dark. Nevertheless I managed this little shot of one of them. A small door let to the next part of the tour. Here you could see a large variety of reptiles. I recognized many of them from my time in Australia which is why I didn’t spent much time watching them. Thursday is feeding time with the Nile crocodiles and I was there just in time to see it. But to be honest, after a visit to the Australia Zoo near Brisbane in Australia where they hand-fed a massive crocodile named Murrey with chicken these African crocodiles seemed kind of…tiny. The tour went on and I saw snakes, spiders, kangaroos and a huge variety of tropical fish of all sizes and colours. The tour ended in a hall with a top to bottom aquarium in which a few sharks and other fish swam. All in all I must admit that my expectations regarding the aquarium weren’t really met. But then again, I went to a couple of zoos and aquariums in OZ and if you’ve seen a manta with a width of 3m then one with a width of maybe 1m does’t really impress you that much. I think I’m just too spoiled…

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the zoo and I’m planning to go again in the near future. The animal park is definitely worth going and I think 20€ is a fair price. As for the aquarium, it just isn’t my thing.

xx, D