Virginia is a Great Horned Owl who was hit by a car. She is incapable of using her talons to hold prey, but that didn't stop her from looking absolutely regal in the presence of her audience at a charity event. She was an amazingly cooperative model, allowing me to cut in close with my 60mm f/2.8 macro for this shot of her eye. I am glad the sky and weather were cooperative in providing copious amounts of light for my use.
The running joke between Josh and the rest of us is that the North Carolina zoo needs to fund an expedition to locate their animals. Indeed, many were missing or sleeping somewhere hidden throughout the day. This ostrich, however, was more than happy to pose right up against the barrier for us, looking for all the world like she was smiling. Yeah, I know, her beak can't change shape, but it looked like it. I captured this with my 75-300 lens and a relatively high ISO of 1600. I'm glad the noise on this shot stayed down, as it is a quick way to ruin detail shots.
I have many fond childhood memories of capturing Tiger Swallowtails in bug catchers to admire them, then let them go. As a child, I was really big into collecting insects. However, we also tried to let many go before they expired. It was never my goal to kill them, that I remember. But I used to see these yellow creatures fluttering around all the bushes outside our apartment. Nowadays, I rarely see them. I saw a few in one day while out testing a new camera, and got this perfectly timed shot of the butterfly feeding. There's no lens EXIF data, because I shoot through an adapter with Canon lenses.
