film photography
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A Trip To The National Zoo Of Malaysia
April 04, 2018
On April Fool Day, I found myself heading to the National Zoo of Malaysia with the Canon AE-1 and the 200mm zoom lens that came with it. My friend was selling it off and I decided to give the zoom lens a try since I was 70% into getting the whole set which also came with the 50mm prime lens.
It was definitely a challenge to walk under the Malaysian weather with a metal box slinging from the shoulders and I really applaud photographers, especially those who uses telephoto lenses to take photos of animals in harsh environments. The one I had was a tiny fraction of what these photographers carry around for their job every single day and I was already dead by the end of the first hour.
The photos below are a mixture of film (black and white) and smartphone (colour) medium. As you can see along the way, my film photos were shaky, blur, over exposed, and some off-focused because I wasn't accustomed to the focusing mechanism as well as the light meter. The Canon AE-1 comes with a working light meter and for someone who started film photography without a light meter, it was a challenging experience. My trained 'film guts' on the settings of aperture and shutter speed contradicted with the built-in light meter caused tremendous frustration the whole time. Well, that only meant one thing, more practice!
Frustration aside, the walk started off with the giraffe area. Unfortunately only one was having lunch (first photo above) while another one was resting (below). We then passed by the group of birds (no idea of their species) walking around and I avoided them because they looked like they would kill me with their long sharp beak. At this point, I was glad I had a zoom lens so that I could stand quite a distance away from the birds while getting a photo of them.
After all the cute and tame animals, we finally came to the section where the wild cats were. Aside from the tiger that we caught taking a bath, the rest of the felines were either sleeping (white tiger looked like sushi rolls on the grass) or resting around the area.
I was pretty excited because I loveeeee observing animals up close. Plus, it has been around 20 years since I last visited the national zoo and I've got to say it's way much more interesting for me now than before. I only remembered the giraffes, that was how bad it was.
After an hour of walking, we reached the panda area which was located inside an air-conditioned building right beside the camels area. It was a great pit stop for everyone as it can be really hot outside so this area really allowed us to cool down and meet the panda!
Quite disappointed I didn't get a clear shot of the panda but despite the shakiness of the photo (below), one can still make up that it's a panda right? HAHAHA 🐼
While I was at the stadium, I learnt that the female panda was back in her home country, China, delivering a healthy little panda which explains this lonely one here. I guess he didn't mind since he could have all the bamboos and carrots to himself!
A short walk outside the panda stadium brought us to this mini safari where there were more giraffes, ostriches, and zebras. There was another lonely animal there, a gazelle, that followed the zebras everywhere but stopped halfway through when it realized it wasn't a zebra. Hence, the standalone photo below.
We stopped by for a refreshing lemon drink before continuing into smaller parks and at last, the aquarium. There was going to be a show later in the afternoon with the penguins but I didn't want to stay for it because it was exactly 12 in the afternoon at that time.
I wished I had more determination towards the end but I was already super tired to take photos of the other animals at the end of the zoo. Here are some unique ones below, the lynx and capybara (super cute)!
I wished I had more determination towards the end but I was already super tired to take photos of the other animals at the end of the zoo. Here are some unique ones below, the lynx and capybara (super cute)!
Both of us were happy kids at the end of our trip to the national zoo. It brought back a lot of childhood memories of touring the zoo with our kindergarten classmates and feeling so dwarfed by all these gigantic animals. It was also fun to disengage with the phone (except for taking photos) and actually taking in nature and admiring the beauty of these animals.
I would love to come back again some day even though it can be very hot, its actually pretty relaxing and you can treat it as an exercise. Plus, I heard the baby panda will be flown back here to Malaysia so I guess the next trip to the zoo won't be that far away~~~
P/S: Some extra shots of my partner-in-crime who, I think I take really good photos of, but can't seem to take any decent photo of me blehhh 😪
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