Last year at this time, I wrote about taking a trip down to Cincinnati to visit the Cincinnati Zoo, having not done so for 15 years.  I resolved to more regularly visit moving forward.  I took off work the Friday of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, which turned out to be a mistake as I wasn’t the only one with this bright idea.  The zoo was packed with people, which detracted from my enjoyment.  As did the realization that my RF70-200 f2.8 didn’t have the reach I remembered.  In the 15 years that had elapsed since that last visit, the zoo had been changed and now many of the animal displays were further from the viewing areas.  My photos from that day were…OK.  Nothing spectacular.  And a lot of cropping was required on the images I got.

This year I was anxious to try again with the EF 100-400 f4.5-5.6 I picked up not long after last year’s ill-fated zoo visit.  I also decided to wait until the Tuesday after the Memorial Day holiday weekend for my Zoo visit, which made a huge difference in my overall enjoyment.  As did the 40 lbs. I dropped over the winter months.  I managed to cover the bulk of the zoo and only sat down for lunch.  The Cincinnati Zoo is VERY hilly, but all the treadmill work I’ve been doing has paid off.   I arrived just before the 10am zoo opening, and got an excellent parking spot right at the main entrance off Vine St.  There was probably ¼ of the normal attendance I’ve seen at the Cincinnati Zoo which was fantastic!  The morning weather was also quite good (low 70’s) with hazy cloud cover that I often describe as “God’s soft box.”  By lunch it started sprinkling a bit and continued to rain until about 2pm when I left.  It was slightly annoying but most of the animals seemed to be unfazed by the rain – with the notable exception of the black bears who unfortunately stayed out of sight.

The main entrance to the Cincinnati Zoo – the crowd was light

THE GEAR

Last year I did my normal 2 camera set up.  I had my RF70-200 f2.8 on my Canon R5 Mark II, and I bought my RF 24-70 f2.8 on my (at the time) Canon R6 Mark IICanon R6 Mark II.  I don’t think I took a single shot with the RF 24-70 f2.8, so this year I just brought my EF 100-400 f4.5-5.6 mounted to my Canon R5 Mark II,  with no 2nd camera body.  Instead, I had my Canon G7 X in my pocket, which came in clutch for a handful of photos.  I also had my trusty DJI Pocket 3 tucked into my back pocket – I’ll have a video of the day’s outing (posted to the ThruMyLens YouTube channel) at the bottom of this article.  Here are the photos I got during my trip:

Roo Valley

For reasons that I cannot comprehend, I was unable to find Roo Valley last time I visited.  Perhaps it was closed?  In any event, This was one of my favorite exhibits because there are no barriers between you and the kangaroos.

The Birds

Scattered Throughout the zoo are various birds – here are a few of my favorite shots:

The Butterfly House

The Cincinnati Zoo has a butterfly house, but it was an exercise in frustration for us photographers as the hyperactive South American butterflies in the exhibit stayed in near constant motion.  I managed to capture a couple:

The Big Cats

Lions, tigers, and cheetahs…oh my!

The Primates

I also really love capturing the various gorillas and monkeys at the zoo:

THE REST

This visit ended up being one of the more enjoyable I can remember thanks largely to the diminished number of other visitors.  It did end up raining after lunch but every that wasn’t terribly.

Here’s the vlog I recorded: