AOS-
Premium
- 28,813
- 'Sauga, ON
Whoopee! It's been over 10 years since I've been to the Toronto Zoo and was ever so anxious to take many pictures despite how much I despise this Sony Cybershot 4.1 DSC-P73, where everything is automatic.... 
. Even so, I put up with it as best I could and even brought an extra set of batteries because I knew this camera devours battery life like a monster. Unfortunately, even with the backup power supply, this has caused me to lose some of the greatest photo opportunities in my life when it dies right before I snap the shutters.
I took over 100 photos, but roughly half of them were way out of focus because the animal was either too far for the camera to focus on, or I was zoomed in too close. Either way, it's hard to tell if it was a clear shot or not in that tiny 1" screen. Many times when a close-up looks clear, it usually isn't. A total 🤬 off to say the least. Because the quality of the photos were (on average, excluding the blurred photos) lacking, touching up photos became a sort of pre-requisite before showing them to anyone. I'll just post the ones I feel are my best.
That first snake, the one only with the head, is probably the BEST looking photo I took the entire trip... The focus is dead on, and the composition I feel is near-perfect within the Rule of Thirds. The colours are vivid and the detail is crisp.
Some notable/fun moments during this trip:
-I was trying to get up close for a (pseudo) detailed shot of a butterfly, when suddenly another one came out of nowhere and landed on my finger! After I got my sister to take a picture of me with it, it refused to get off
-Since the camera can't zoom far to save its life, I've put much more effort when given the opportunity at close-range shots... In the zoo, there are numerous peacocks that are tagged and are set to roam freely anywhere in the zoo. With them outside of cages, I could get real close to one so I got carried away every time I came across one. The only problem was that they wouldn't stay still and my camera has no manual shutter speed setting!
-The jellyfish..... I still can't get over the fact that my batteries died just when I was about to take a photo of them. I had them lined up in a really nice layout; it was perfect! But then the camera flashes the "no power remaining" light at me and I was instantly let down.
-The Stingray Bay was open and that's a specially set up pool where they let a whole bunch of small stingrays swim around and you can pet them. It's shallow and set up probably 3 or 4 ft above ground level, so if you leaned over and reached to the bottom of the pool, the water level would reach your elbow roughly. There was also a booth set up where you paid $2 for those large paper ketchup cups that had chunks of small fish inside to feed the stingrays. What you do is you grip a piece by one end with your hand stretched out, palm facing down, with the piece of fish sticking up. You then place your hand as low as you can in the water because their mouths are underneath the body so they'll swoop over your hand and they will take fish... Maybe I was doing it wrong but the 2nd or 3rd time, I felt it chew at my ring finger! It didn't dig its teeth into it, but it felt almost like someone without teeth gnawing at you with a weak jaw. So once I had no more food left to feed them with, I just passed my hand over their smooth slippery bodies as they swam by.... They feel really pleasant to the touch. The skin is so delicate and soft, but getting the chance to make contact with one is one incredibly experience.
What do you think for a Auto-focus 3.0x zoom 4.1 Megapixel Camera?
. Even so, I put up with it as best I could and even brought an extra set of batteries because I knew this camera devours battery life like a monster. Unfortunately, even with the backup power supply, this has caused me to lose some of the greatest photo opportunities in my life when it dies right before I snap the shutters.I took over 100 photos, but roughly half of them were way out of focus because the animal was either too far for the camera to focus on, or I was zoomed in too close. Either way, it's hard to tell if it was a clear shot or not in that tiny 1" screen. Many times when a close-up looks clear, it usually isn't. A total 🤬 off to say the least. Because the quality of the photos were (on average, excluding the blurred photos) lacking, touching up photos became a sort of pre-requisite before showing them to anyone. I'll just post the ones I feel are my best.
That first snake, the one only with the head, is probably the BEST looking photo I took the entire trip... The focus is dead on, and the composition I feel is near-perfect within the Rule of Thirds. The colours are vivid and the detail is crisp.
Some notable/fun moments during this trip:
-I was trying to get up close for a (pseudo) detailed shot of a butterfly, when suddenly another one came out of nowhere and landed on my finger! After I got my sister to take a picture of me with it, it refused to get off
-Since the camera can't zoom far to save its life, I've put much more effort when given the opportunity at close-range shots... In the zoo, there are numerous peacocks that are tagged and are set to roam freely anywhere in the zoo. With them outside of cages, I could get real close to one so I got carried away every time I came across one. The only problem was that they wouldn't stay still and my camera has no manual shutter speed setting!
-The jellyfish..... I still can't get over the fact that my batteries died just when I was about to take a photo of them. I had them lined up in a really nice layout; it was perfect! But then the camera flashes the "no power remaining" light at me and I was instantly let down.
-The Stingray Bay was open and that's a specially set up pool where they let a whole bunch of small stingrays swim around and you can pet them. It's shallow and set up probably 3 or 4 ft above ground level, so if you leaned over and reached to the bottom of the pool, the water level would reach your elbow roughly. There was also a booth set up where you paid $2 for those large paper ketchup cups that had chunks of small fish inside to feed the stingrays. What you do is you grip a piece by one end with your hand stretched out, palm facing down, with the piece of fish sticking up. You then place your hand as low as you can in the water because their mouths are underneath the body so they'll swoop over your hand and they will take fish... Maybe I was doing it wrong but the 2nd or 3rd time, I felt it chew at my ring finger! It didn't dig its teeth into it, but it felt almost like someone without teeth gnawing at you with a weak jaw.
So once I had no more food left to feed them with, I just passed my hand over their smooth slippery bodies as they swam by.... They feel really pleasant to the touch. The skin is so delicate and soft, but getting the chance to make contact with one is one incredibly experience.What do you think for a Auto-focus 3.0x zoom 4.1 Megapixel Camera?
