Sleepy Kitty

This is not exactly your go-to blog for cute animal pictures, but sometimes even my stony heart has been known to melt.

Tonight’s expedition was the Twilight tour at the local zoo, a chance to visit the animals in small groups led by a docent.  I was able to take this picture of a full-grown ocelot sacking out on a tree limb.

Photographing the animals was challenging, not because they were either indifferent or in motion (though they were), but because I had to photograph them through wire mesh.  If there was any mesh in the photo at all, the Canon’s autofocus would focus on that, and I’d end up with a perfect picture of a fence with nothing but blur behind it.

So, using the camera’s 50-to-1 zoom, I had to zoom through a gap in the mesh, which was a challenge because the gaps in the mesh were less than two inches across.  And because the only way to do that was to really use the zoom, and I hadn’t thought to bring a tripod, the image kept bouncing around and it was difficult to keep it focused.

But here’s where all the various factors lined up, and I ended up with a nice picture.  Enjoy.