JCO portrait at Wild Animal Park

We spent Valentine's Day hiking around the wonderful botanical gardens at the San Diego Wild Animal Park; a part of the park that we have never explored before. I found it quite nice and relaxing. There were diverse landscapes from shady conifer forests, winding streams and water falls, bridges, canyons, to arid rock and cactus gardens. A nice place to visit for portraits and plant or macro photography. In fact, I saw quite a few photographers wandering around that part of the grounds.

I present here a couple shots of JCO in the conifer garden. One thing I noticed as I reviewed my shots was the lack of sharpness and contrast in many of the shots. I'm starting to notice this more and more in my "walk-around-lens", the Tamron18-200mm. I'm not sure if it is the lens (I was getting used to the sharpness of my 50mm prime) or camera shake (potentially more of a problem when I'm zoomed in) , but I'm starting to think that a vibration reduction (VR) or optically stabilized (OS) lens may help. Of course better technique might also help, but slowing down, steadying the camera, relaxing and squeezing the shutter is a lot to think about when you're trying to capture a moving toddler. I think a lens rental and perhaps a new lens purchase is in my near future.