Prairie dogs are belong to the squirrel family and are native to North America where they would be found burrowing in grasslands. The prairie dogs I have photographed were in the Secret Valley Wildlife Park in Clonroche.
The Secret Valley Wildlife Park is a fully licensed zoo with 40 species of animals. The outstanding thing for me about my visit to the park was the knowledge and empathy of the young keeper and his enthusiastic talks about the animals in his care.
Unfortunately, the day I visited was one of the hottest of the year and the light was too harsh to get good photographs and the threat of sunburn at the back of my mind. Fortunately, I found the prairie dogs indoors and was immediately captivated by the wonderful creatures (not just the shaded cooler atmosphere). I spent ages taking photographs, a challenge due to the dull light of indoors which resulted in me using my new 180mm macro lens at open aperture of f3.5. The shutter speed in this shot was 1/250 sec. and an ISO of 3200.
Comments
Post a Comment