I Got the Shot!! - The Story of the Red Panda and her Baby!
As you know from my last update I was asked to be a volunteer Oklahoma City Zoo Photographer. Truly amazing for an animal lover like myself. If you want to attack me and zoos for housing animals outside of the wild see my previous post and don’t send me hateful messages. Ok.. now that we are done with that.
I got some information today that the zoo needed shots of the new baby Red Panda and her mother. Ok.. that should be easy. Well.. I was informed that no one has been able to get the shot they wanted since the baby was born a couple of months ago. Oh… Ok.. I will give it a try.
I arrived at the zoo with a positive attitude and the mindset that I was going to get the shot if I had to sit in front of their exhibit all afternoon. I am known for sitting in one place for over an hour waiting for an animal to do what I want so I can get the shot, so my patience is pretty good to say the least. Well.. My wife would tell you different but this is different in my mind!!!
I made my way all the way to the back of the zoo from the front entrance which is where the Red Panda’s are located. As I walked through the zoo I thought to myself. Where the heck are all these kids coming from and why aren’t they in school?? Well, I found out that it was Fall Break and every child in Oklahoma had made their way to the zoo or so it seemed. Needless to say they were everywhere.
Once I got the the Red Panda enclosure the mom was asleep up on top of her home which is exactly where she is EVERY SINGLE time I have come to the zoo to shoot. Yes I have been by her enclosure time and time again and she is always asleep, without fail. So… I leaned against the wall and waited and waited and waited. As an hour approached I thought for sure she would wake up with all the screaming kids but she didn’t move an inch. Not a single movement and then… all of a sudden she lifted her head. This was a huge day for me. I have never seen Mama Red Panda move at all and now she has made move number 1 to be getting the shot I need. We were a long way from what I needed and at this point I had no idea where the baby was either because she wasn’t sleeping with her mother. To my surprise mom got up and started walking around all over the place, walking on branches, eating leaves, moving all over the place. Did I mention mom was a rescue and only has three legs? She is missing her back left leg. So.. me saying she started running all over the place is overstating it a tiny bit.
Mom kept walking all over the place, having fun and eating but I still didn’t know where baby girl was located until mom went up on top of a second housing box and looked down. I thought, this must be it. And then.. I could see a tiny bit of red fur inside the box. Not sure how I missed it but I did. But that didn’t matter as my assignment to beat all other photographers was to get a shot of mom with her baby. Did I mention no one had gotten a good shot of mom and baby since she was born?
Mom was moving around for about an hour and then she made her way to the ground and in front of her was a long ladder leading up to the box where I thought baby might be. Mom made it to the top of the ladder with her three legs and went inside the box. At this point I had gotten a bunch of shots of mom by herself which wasn’t what the zoo needed but I was excited as this was the most movement I have seen out of mom in years. Remember I have never seen mom move an inch.
As I sat there waiting with my Nikon D850 pressed again the glass with my rubber lens hood (this is used to remove the glare from shooting through glass) and my Nikon 70-200 lens I was wondering if today was the lucky day that a zoo photographer would get the shot - ME!
And after about 20 minutes of waiting there was movement and I could see both of them moving around inside the house box and then all of a sudden out came their heads and my finger pressed the continuous button and off we went. I GOT THE SHOT… It was exciting that I finally got exactly what the zoo needed. What an exciting day. Images Below.
JBP
