I picked up my charger from the Swan Concierge (a colleague had borrowed it to revive his D90) and noticed a nice image of the Swan and Dolphin on a screen ... shot from an angle across the river and quite far from the complex. I walked out the back of the Swan into incredible sweltering heat :-) and walked until I found a bridge to cross the river. I walked back along the river until I saw the angle and realized that they shot I saw came from the top of one of the other complexes. I got the shot anyway, and it turned out quite pretty because I polarized the light and emphasized the impressive clouds. It's very landscapey ...
I continued walking and ran across some of the local flora. There is a tree that looks a little like our Peegee Hydrangea crossed with a Lilac bush ...
There's also an interesting flower that resembles our Spider Plant quite closely ...
When I got back, I decided to experiment a bit with the flashes in case I needed them later .... this was the best I could get, but the outside and inside are both accurately exposed, so I was pleased with the result. Of course, I don't normally like to shoot gargoyles, but so be it.
Finally, it was time to get on the buses and head out to Animal Planet.
As always, they blocked off a section og the park for us ... this included Dinoland, Asia, and the party area in the middle ... lots of food laid out in buffets around the park, we had a choice of Asian, Italian and something I can't place (beans and pulled pork.)
The walk around the park was quite pleasant, with people standing in various spots holding animals for close inspection and photography.
The first was carrying an adult owl, tethered to avoid blinding the attendees I suppose ...
Then came the snake lady ....
The texture on that thing is incredible ... scales like jewels. She handles a snake well, one must admit. Next came a young lady with a baby owl .... sooooo cuuuuuute ......
We even saw a "glow in the dark" Scorpion, one of the largest on Earth. This thing is almost black by day, but when hit by ultra-violet light, it glows like this. Apparently, they are pretty easy to find at night :-)
There were entertainers all over as well. They never failed to strike a pose for the camera ...
There's always something for the kids ...
Eventually, the guests tired of paying nothing for all the booze they could drink and took matters into their own hands ...
The light began to fade and I eventually just stopped shooting ... I went into the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show, a 4D extravaganza. Quite fun. When I came out it was pouring rain, so off to the buses. My last few images ...
Now, the reason why the title says "almost" is that I was invited to a customer meeting at 7:30am ... and I don't care what anyone says, getting up that early is work :-)
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