Looking the other way at the zoo

As I've mentioned a couple of times earlier this summer, I've been taking a street photography continuing ed class. Or rather, I was taking one, as being sick off and on all summer led me to miss a bunch of classes and I finally had to admit I wasn't getting much out of it with the attendance I was able to put in. But before I got to that point I was working on a project to look a little bit differently when I was at the zoo, and think about also taking pictures of the people as they interact with the animals.

The saying doesn't quite go "the fool looks at a finger that points at a tiger," but I think that works reasonably well. Still, while tigers are very interesting, people looking at tigers are interesting too, and a subject that's totally unique to zoo photography.

It's also probably the only place you're going to see plain-dress Mennonites riding camels. These kids were having a great time and didn't mind me photographing them.

In general in my photography I'm looking for a sense of wonder, and the zoo is one of the places that really comes out in people. If I'm looking for people truly experiencing the moment they're in, it's a great place to find them. The self-consciousness that exists in the outside world is still there, but it vanishes in certain moments.

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Another aspect of the zoo culture that is often good to capture is the interaction between zoo patrons and volunteers. Judging by his name tag, Drake here is a new second-level volunteer this year - the first-levels wear blue shirts - and his job is to hang around in the Australia exhibit and teach people about snake skin, apparently.

I enjoy that this kid is fascinated but also very skeptical. It's a common expression on the faces of people encountering the touch exhibits for the first time, but it's still a pretty great one.

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Please remind your kids not to stick their heads into the exhibit. You never know what those strange primates are going to do.

The zoo has a fully-functional farm complete with a whole passel of piglets at the moment. This volunteer was standing in the pen, and her job was to catch a piglet, hold it up for the patrons to interact with, and then when it got too upset at being held put it back down and catch another one.

I didn't get a shot of her name tag that showed her first name, but she's been a volunteer since 2002, so presumably she knew what she was getting into. Still, doing that all day I think should deserve a bonus of some sort.

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I caught some horse campers heading for the barn. I'm not actually sure why I like this photo so much, but it works for me.

The last three are going to be from the bird show. In this one, I just love the woman who is completely indifferent to the macaw right behind her. Everyone else is excited and fascinated by the bird and she is like "you dragged me to this bird show but I am not going to enjoy it so there."

Maybe I'm projecting too much. You're always kind of doing that with street photography, judging a narrative that might be there with very minimal evidence. There's a lot of depth to that idea that I'm just starting to explore.

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These two, on the other hand, are clearly plotting something. Of that I have no doubt. But which is the supervillain and which is the henchman? That's the question.

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At the end of the show they have pretty much the best fund-raising event ever: kids line up to give dollar bills to the macaw, who puts them into the money box. When we figure out how to make that work with a Steem upvote we'll have it made.