Holiday Lights at Bronx Zoo

Most of the holiday markets I love so much are closed this year. It makes sense but it still sucks. It did free up some time to go see the holiday lights at Bronx Zoo though. I’ve always wanted to go but the zoo is a 45 minute drive from our place. We did it this Summer and it wasn’t so bad. Not something I would want to do frequently but once a season? Sure. I got us tickets in October for 6PM. No animals on view but the there was a sea lion going for one last swim before bed.

I was nervous before going. I didn’t know which lens to take. If things were far, I would need the telephoto. If things were close, I would need the wide angle. There was no way I could take both. So I took the 50mm prime lens. It opens very wide and since I wasn’t taking a tripod (my kids would have killed me if I’d spent one more second taking pictures), I needed that extra shutter speed.

I bumped the ISO up to 6400. Not my favorite because pictures can get very noisy but it was necessary. V didn’t seem to mind the noise in this one but I wouldn’t have shared it if it hadn’t been for her compliment.

I mostly took pictures of the lanterns. The Christmas lights are harder to get right. I’m guessing because you’re taking a picture of the light source directly rather than have it diffused through something. I was actually surprised at how easy it was to get the lanterns right. I did have to try a 2-3 times for each one because the exposure wasn’t always right but they mostly worked.

Ok, so this last one is a little different. There were these two rhino statues in front of a building and they’d put lit wreaths around their necks. I loved it but when I tried to get a picture it didn’t seem to work. However, when I got the images on the computer, I thought different. It’s got a bit of a Nightmare before Christmas vibe going on but I like it.

I mean, Christmas rhino. What’s not to love?