Sunday was Photo Day at the Los Angeles Zoo. I arrived around 7:30 a.m., registered (receiving my name tag, t-shirt, agenda, and zoo map), and had a snack for breakfast (danish and coffee). Apparently we were supposed to get a more substantial breakfast - I don't know if anyone complained, but the snack breakfast was fine with me.

Mark Comon of Paul's Photo (primary sponsor of the day) gave us a slide show, talking about previous winners and introducing the sponsors and their wares. His mantra was "Have fun!" I did.

Minolta, who made my film camera, has gone out of the camera business, so I didn't have any lenses to play with. I borrowed an Olympus digital camera with a gazillion bells and whistles (even in "automatic" mode) that I found it difficult to take pictures. I seem to have a lot of shots of fences enclosing various exhibits. My computer at home isn't very good, so I'll bring the CD to work and hope I can see them better.

Animals. Lots of animals. The two snow leopard cubs were on exhibt, as was their mother. They behaved like many house cats do - climbing the mesh that encloses their exhibit and chasing each other around.

Various keepers put out enrichment items for their animals - hamburger and large bones for the tigers, melon wedges and pine cones for the black bears. I got photos of the giraffes, including some shots that display their long prehensile tongues.

After lunch, the zoo docents brought out some insects - a millipede, hissing cockroach (no, I didn't hear it hiss), and a tarantula. We also took a botanical walk, with two knowledgeable docents describing various plants and how they are used by animals.

I didn't get to see the elephant (the zoo's Asian male, Billy, is the only elephant on exhibit) or the koala. But that will wait until next time!