I’ve recently had a bunch of film developed, some of it months old. I’ve also discovered that one of the UW library computer labs has two fancy Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 slide/negative scanners. They take longer than my flatbed scanner, but scanning negatives produces much sharper and richer images than you get scanning prints. So long story short (too late?), I’ll be posting a bunch of pictures over the next week or so. The first little batch comes from a trip to the zoo.
The Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison is free and open year-round. In the winter though, I don’t imagine that many of the animals are outside, other than species like polar bears and penguins. Not having made it to the zoo in the fall, I had to wait through many months of winter for a chance to visit in decent weather. Veronica and I went during our spring break, which was at the beginning of April.
The zoo is fairly small, as one might expect from an institution with no admission charge (the National Zoo not withstanding). The habitats seem small, which I thought might be a sign of their age. But, most of the zoo has apparently been redone in the last 20 years or so. Most of the animals were out, but some (e.g.: giraffes and penguins) were nowhere to be seen. I think the area I liked the best was the aviary — not huge, but a nice walk-through facility with lots of colorful birds flitting around.
I’m hoping to get back to the zoo sometime this summer to see (I hope) all of the animals, and maybe shoot some more pics. The small size of the zoo lends itself to casual visits; you can make an entire circuit in about an hour. It’s also nice to be able to drop by without having to shell out big bucks for admission.
