New lens

Last Christmas Josh's brother Jakob gave us his old Canon 60-D and and my life has never been the same since. Not only was Jake my new favorite person in the universe, but I've also been able to feed my photography passion a little bit. I'm genetically predisposed to like photography; both my parents are photographers and while that doesn't guarantee skill, it does mean I know a little bit of the vocabulary. But there is SO much to learn! This is a profession, and I am barely dipping a toe in it. I've been reading the manual, countless tutorials, and asking all my photography savvy friends loads of questions, and I still know so little. It feels great to learn a new skill though, however slowly it's going. We got our new lens in the mail yesterday (18-135mm IS STM) and what do you do when you want to try out some new photography stuff? Go to the zoo, of course!

Not at the official zoo yet, but this is the first shot I took. It's at the LeMaistre Zoo.

Oh man, still not at the zoo, but look at that happy face!

A coiled bunch of muscle ready to strike, and a snake.

Learning how to use focus points. The rocks are sharp but the owl is not. I think I fixed that later on.

Rupert licking a telescope. Yum.

Closeup shots are great too.

I'm fairly certain this is the plant that makes me sneeze constantly and makes it so I'm constantly bawling whenever I go outside. 

It helped that it was overcast and the sky was a giant light box.

Struggling with exposure. But the boys had a great time watching the orangutan family while I blundered about with the settings.

James' face is priceless.

Onward faithful steed!

Warbler underside.

Whoa Nellie!

Some shenanigans.

This boy wants to be six feet tall already.

So much more to learn, and I can't wait to use it more. Any suggestions, tips, tricks, you think I should know?