Houston Zoo

Debbie Henderson invited me to go to the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Museum of Natural Science. I already had been wanting to go back to try out an idea I had about using flash. However when we got there it was closed—one of the two days each years when they close to wash the windows. Go figure.

The idea had been to do macro photographs for the upcoming March competition for the camera club. In lieu of the Butterfly Center, we went to the Houston Zoo. I am not much of an animal photographer but we were there so why not.

Actually, at the zoo we went into what is called the Swap Shop. Young people—limited to below 18 years old—can bring in objects they find in nature. They are assigned “points” for their find and those points can be applied against “purchasing” other items from the shop. Since we were the only people there Debbie was talking with the lady in charge and when she discovered that we were wanting to do macro photos, she went into the back room and came back with a box full of “specimens”—bugs of all sorts. There wasn’t much for a background so we settled for putting the bugs on an alligator hide. Hindsite is great. I wonder why neither of us thought to walk outside and find some dried leaves. I am sure there were plenty around. Anyway, Debbie got several really nice photographs of everything from beetles to butterflies. I got a couple but I mostly concentrated on photographing their live lizard.

Debbie was anxious to get back to the Reptile House but we did make a brief run through the Aviary. Can’t say that I did really good but I did get a couple of photographs of the chimpanzees that I liked, a few bird shots and, although I was really disappointed with most of my shots in the Reptile House, a couple there. In all it was a fun day—and it was cheap. You know me and cheap!