Portraits from the Zoo Safari

The weekend is almost here and I have some pretty neat (tentative) plans: trekking and camping along some of the beautiful beaches on the southwest coast of Italy.  A friend told me about this wonderful little beach town that would be perfect for some seascape work.  Stay tuned!

Since I do not shoot nearly enough people portraits, I wanted to share some animal portraits from a recent trip to the Fasano Zoosafari in southeast Italy.  First off, if you are in southern Italy and have kids this trip is a must.  For those military families who want to get out of the craziness of Naples for a weekend, take a drive east to visit the Zoosafari of Fasano (where you can get a photo of your kids just like mine ), Trulli Houses of Alberobello, Castel del Monte, Grotte di Castellana, and Sassi of Matera – Boom, weekend trip covered.

Back to the Zoosafari.  I have had this unique zoo on my to-do list for quite some time now and finally had the chance to add it to an itinerary last weekend.  I heard many things about the park, negative to positive, but overall it was a great experience.  When you first arrive, you can either take your car through the Safari or park your ride and do the walking part (sort of an amusement park/zoo mixup) first.  Since it was late in the day and we knew we would spend a lot of time taking pictures in the Safari, we opted just for the driving. 

Once you pay the 22 Euro per person (yes, that is one of the few downsides), you drive in to the park.  The first thing you see is an old elephant, stuck inside a small fence and obviously pretty depressed.  That was really the only part of the park I had an issue with.  Everywhere else the animals are free to roam wherever they like.  Even the Lion, Tiger and Bear areas were large, allowing room for them to run around. 

Driving through the park would take a normal person about 45 minutes to an hour, but it will take a photographer over 2 hours.  There is such a uniquely awesome collection of wild animals from around the world, all cohabitating together and free to roam as they like.  It is a pretty neat dynamic that is not seen elsewhere.  Additionally, besides the whole “not getting out of your car in the lion/tiger/bear dens (although they don’t seem to care if you have your windows down while the beasts are literally feet from you), there really aren’t any significant rules, nor are the actual “rules” enforced.  The park rangers are usually eating in their little buggies, talking on their cell phone, or generally paying attention to everything other than what goes on in front of them – so it is kind of like Naples. 

Anyways, today I wanted to share some of the portraits I captured of the furry friends I made during my trek through the Safari Park.  Can you guess what the most creepy animal in the world is?  I’ll give you a hint – It is one of the animals below.  All taken with my Nikon D800 and 28-300mm lens. 

Enjoy!

Thanks for the visit!  Check back tomorrow!