Last weekend gave us weather in the 70's - with all of the great zoo animal photos posted recently, I was inspired to take a trip to the zoo and try out my new Sigma 70-200 2.8. I think I learned a lot . . . (mostly that I can't see worth a darn and handheld with this lens is completely out of the question!)

Monopod in hand, and a daughter to carry my stuff while I took pictures, I had a great day. A lot of varied shooting conditions, swearing at the birds (who NEVER stay still!), and trying to remember that I could experiment with different settings in the same shot.

Here are my favorites from the day. My most favorite is the cougar - he had just spotted a zoo worker approaching and went into stalk mode (it was almost closing time). The baboon reminds me of the Japanese Snow Monkeys that were made famous on the cover of National Geographic many years ago.

One of these days I'm going to learn how to do this right. I can be taught new tricks.
Anyway, here are a few more. Thanks for looking.

4 5 and 6 are my fav's.

Nice shooting. If you think the 200 is hard to shoot free hand try the 50 - 500 lol. If I can't set the shutter at 1/250 or better the camera shake is really bad.

250?? I wish! I don't go below 500 - with the monopod!

Wondering if the extra grand to get the Nikon VR might have been worth it . . .

I really like the giraffe shot. The way the rock follows the same contour of the giraffe's back - very nice.

Looks like you were shooting through glass on a sunny day. Not the easiest thing to do - like using a dirty greasy filter.

Sounds like you had a good learning experience at the zoo. That's what it's all about :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Loupey - yup, the gorilla, cougar, & ocelot are all through dirty, smeared, scratched plexiglass (or whatever they use to keep us safely out of harm's way).

I am planning on getting this Sigma too, it's good to see crisp shots from it! Well done!

Nice shots! The first and fourth ones are my favorites.

Big glass = heavy glass! If I know I'm giong to be shooting a lot (like a soccer game) then I try to take my monopod with me. Otherwise, hope you've got plenty of light and a high shutter speed.

Like you, I'd love to have the Nikon VR version!

Love that 2# really cool!
The Gorilla shots give such feeling, Good job (even if the glass is dirty).