Adios Amigos!

As many things have changed at the animal shelter and I´m not taking photos for it anymore, I´ve decided to move to a new blog with a more appropriate titel.

Please bear with me if it´ll take a while to get started as I don´t know if I´ll have internet access for the next weeks.
One things for sure: On Monday, April 16th, I´ll be flying to Costa Rica to work with bats.
If I´m lucky it might start as a travel blog ;).

I´d be happy if you´d stick with me, though cannot say when I´ll breathe life into my new, virtual playground.
The new address is: http://annesstories.blogspot.com/

What a bargain...

...49,99 Euro instead of 45!

Advert, seen today.

More photos from the zoo of Frankfurt

Dwarf in my hand

Once again Pauline, my dzungarian dwarf hamster (Phodopus dsungorus).

Just in case you hadn´t noticed: this and the last photos are "Thumbnails". You have to click on the photo to see them in their full glory :) - not only larger in size but also in better quality.

1/250; F 5,6
EOS 300d, 18-55 mm Kit Lens & 330 Topca Flash
(Btw. all bought used via the internet and, according to many foto-forums, best to be thrown away.)

Gerbils & Budgies

The pets of a friend, two gerbils called Micki & Ricki and two budgies named Nicky and Sammy - I hope I finally got it right :).

All pics were taken with indirect flash, my cheap Topca 330 COS from e-bay which I´m becoming very fond of. Many of the photos were either over- or underexposed but I´ll keep learning :).

Zoo Nordhorn

Pan of mice

Enclosure and inhabitant of the Reed vole (Microtus fortis) enclosure. I very much like exhibits like this! There are loads of rodent species, 1500 out of 4000 mammals in total is an educated guess. Many zoos unfortunately neglect these "lbj´s" (Little brown jobs) as they´re often called in the zoo-world. Understandably, as one might say, considering that many visitors don´t care much for them and their show-value isn´t very high.

But if you provide interesting information about the concerned species in an accessible way and add some innovative enclosure design they can make great (and mostly cheap) displays.

Squirrel monkey

Australian aviary with budgerigars, zebrafinches, eastern Rosellas and doves.

Visitors may feed the budgies with foxtail millet they can buy at the entrance.

Even though many nestboxes are provided these hole-nesting birds seem to fancy little caves between the stone slabs as an alternative.

I made use of my annual ticket of the small but predominantly nice zoo of Nordhorn yesterday.
I also saw some of my beloved coypus swimming in the river Vechte :).

Joy, one of two nice but very shy, white shepherds at the shelter

Amy

Right now I´m looking for a new-used Telezoom as repairing the old one wouldn´t pay off.
So I´m doing research on forums etc. and once again find myself surprised at the importance many hobby photographers ascribe to their equipment.
And then, after you´ve realized they must have spent ages and a whole fortune on choosing and buying just one lens you look at their pics.
And this nice, gleeful, warm feeling spreads when you realize that in many cases they´re boring at the best.
Cause my pics aren´t works of art either & I wouldn´t mind getting a fast lens, say a 2.8, 300 mm for a couple of thousand bucks - but what I find disturbing is what that they reduce photography to, when they only care about IS, USM and what-the-heck.
You´d think that it was all about gear when you read the discussions of those guys. And yes, they´re mostly guys, which may hint at the underlying problem- not to be sexist, it´s just a statistically provable, unbiased observation :).
This is a quote I found on another photo-forum:
"My wife is an excellent cook. She spends a lot of time in the kitchen making meals that rival a good restaurant. She does not spend hours discussing the wattage, voltage, ergonomics etc of her kitchen appliances."
Strike, I´d say.