When we went to the zoo last week, I ended up buying us a new zoo pass. We had one before and ended up letting our membership lapse. But since going 2.5 times pays for it, I figured it was worth getting it again. Especially since Nonni was coming up for a visit soon and she likes taking the boys there for music or story time during the week!
Since I took a bunch of photos last week, I wasn’t going to take any photos. Then it occurred to me that Thomas might want to take his camera and we could practice his photography skills. He was super excited about this plan! His camera is the one Matt and I bought right before we got married. It was a great camera then and is still a pretty good camera now - though you can certainly tell a difference between it and my fancy Nikon. (I would hope so though, considering the price difference!)
This visit they both got maps and Henry was trying to navigate around like his big brother did last week. He definitely needs some navigating practice! I let Thomas take most of the photos today, but I snapped this one of Henry to make sure the camera was working ok. And it was accidentally a pretty comical photo - I have no idea why that expression on his face is, but with the sunglasses, it’s hilarious.
Back to Thomas photos! The moose wouldn’t cooperate for a good photo - he kept hiding behind this tree. I was really trying to work with Thomas on looking through the viewfinder.
He always holds the camera up to his face like he is using it, but he has not gotten the concept of actually looking through it. So that was our focus today! (This photo is from last year, but this is his standard MO for holding the camera. That viewfinder is nowhere near his eye!) Also, that's his camera - and I just noticed that we never peeled the sticker off the front of it - ha!
He actually managed to get a decent shot of the otters out of the water. They were again running all over the place, but they stayed in place long enough for Thomas to get a photo of them before they ran back in the water. He was honestly just as excited about the pipe in the lower left that shoots water out as he was about the otters…
We made it over to the wolf enclosure and one of the wolves was pacing the fence line. I pointed out the wolf and told Thomas he should take a photo! I am honestly not sure if he was aiming at the wolf and missed or if he was more excited about the pine cones, but there are definitely more pine cones than wolf in the final shot.
The musk ox enclosure is a little biased against short photographers. He managed to get a photo above the bars, but it was challenging. I think most of my photos from when I was a kid look like this. Once we get the looking through the viewfinder mastered, we’ll need to work on composure. So many things to learn!
It also makes me appreciate the fact that my parents bought me a camera when I was young and developed sooooo many rolls of film for me. All I have to do is download photos - I have it way easier! At to be 100% honest, I do clean up his photos a little bit in Lightroom, he still has that lean problem and I figured you all would get tired of tilting your head to see the photos...!)
I then had the brilliant idea of having him take a photo of Henry and I! Ha - he obviously needs a *little* more practice in aiming. In his defense, it might be hard to use the viewfinder with his glasses. Maybe?
Another family walked by us at this point and nicely offered to take a photo of all three of us. I thanked them, but told them I was actually trying to teach Thomas some photography skills. It just might be a longer process than I thought. ;)
His hands finally got chilly enough that he wanted to be able to stick them in his pockets, so he handed the camera back to me. I took one last photo of my two favorite people before we headed back to the car. (And you can clearly tell Henry wanted the camera here, but I'm not quite trusting enough of him yet to hand it over. Soon, Henry...!) All-in-all it was another great day at the zoo and another day closer to the warm & sunny Alaskan summer. Can't wait!