We visited the Frankfurt zoo in early June 2019, mainly to see the new penguin enclosure (I'm sponsoring a penguin) but also to have a general look around – it's been five years or so since we last went! It was a sunny day but we came fairly early so it wasn't too crowded (at first anyway). It was fun seeing – and photographing – the animals.

There's no guarantee that you're going to see any given animal, since the zoo subscribes to the idea that the animal enclosures should be good for their inhabitants (not especially the visitors). That of course often includes lots of plants that provide cover, as well as nooks and crannies where the animals can hide. Hence no photographs of apes and very few of big cats, all of whom seemed to be either very shy or else averse to the sun. Many of the small birds found it a lot more difficult to get out of sight given that they're in aquarium-like enclosures in the bird house! I particularly like the photo of the king vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) looking directly into the camera.

All of these pictures were taken either with the Olympus m.Zuiko Pro 12-100mm f/4 or the m.Zuiko 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7. I'm enjoying the 12-100 more the more I'm using it, and the 75-300 (which is like a 150-600mm lens for 35mm film or “full-frame” digital cameras) is great to get really close to the animals, especially on a sunny day like this when it doesn't matter that it is a bit slow. I also had the m.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 Macro in my bag but as we didn't go into the “Exotarium” (fish/reptile/crawly-critter house) this time I didn't use that lens at all.

Click on any picture for an enlarged view.