http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:LifesAZoo&section=today deviantART RSS for by:LifesAZoo en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:20:50 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18471319/ http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18471319/ Fri, 23 May 2008 22:26:44 PDT

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While growing up I have always had love and respect for animals and now that I am all grown up I still feel the same way. For the past several years animals have been very important to me in my life. I feel like I am connected to them and they have a connection with me.

For over three years I have been a member at the San Francisco Zoo and I go to the zoo almost every week. Over the past three years I have built a bond with the animals at the zoo. The animals get excited to see me when I visit them and I am always excited to see them.

My favorite animal at the San Francisco Zoo is a Sumatran Tiger by the name of Padang. Padang just recently turned 18 years old and in captivity a Sumatran Tiger's lifespan on average is between 18-20 years. She is the oldest big cat at the zoo and I am so lucky to have a bond with her that is stronger then any other animal at the zoo. Padang use to be in an enclosure that you could actually sit right next to her behind glass but do to another Sumatran giving birth they moved her out of this enclosure to make room for the other tiger and cubs. Each week I would spend an 1 1/2 to 2 hours with her. During these weekly visits created a friendship between us. The friendship I guess started while I was photographing her and I noticed when ever I would go form one end of the enclosure to the other she would follow me. When ever I would come to visit her she loved to run up to the glass and greet me. I started putting my hand up to the glass as if I was going to pet her and she would rub her head up to the glass where my hand was. Then I started to place my cheek against the glass to see what she would do and she again would rub her face against the glass as to rub against my face but then she would also lick the glass as to try to lick me. I have so many great memories of things she would do with me during my weekly visits which I miss being able to do and I look forward to the day they are able to put her back into that enclosure again so I can spend quality time with her.

Padang is not the only one I have build a bond with at the zoo. I have built a bond with all the big cats and I have also built a bond with the several of the primates and the bears.

I have three primates that are my favorites which are Jaho (Ya-ho) the male Mandrill, Oscar Jonesy the male Western Lowland Gorilla and Zura which is Oscar Jonesy's half sister. Jaho I love because I will call his name and tell him he is a handsome boy and then he turns to me and almost always gives me the prettiest smile. Zura has always been one of my favorites because she will act like a class clown when I visit her by coming up and siting in front of the camera and then she starts to wiggle her tongue at the camera. It took me around 2 years to earn the respect of Oscar Jonesy since he is not really big on people but one day I called out his name and he turned to me and smiled really big. Since that day he pays closer attention to me when I visit him and instead of running off and hiding he sticks around and lets me photograph him.

My connection with animals also goes beyond zoos because I have noticed this connection even out in the wild. When I go hiking in Rancho San Antonio Open Space Reserve I have had deer and bobcats walk almost all the way up to me. I believe these animals know I will not harm them and know that I have a connection with them.

Animals is my passion and I am very passionate about photographing the connection that the animals and I share with each other.



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]]> *LifesAZoo http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18382889/ http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18382889/ Sun, 18 May 2008 12:39:57 PDT

On May 17th I went to the San Francisco Zoo for Zoo Member's Morning. I do not normally go to the zoo on the weekends since you have to deal with more people plus the animals seem to like it more when there is less people around so the week days always seem best for me and my photography.

Zoo Member's Morning featured the Snow Leopards which was a treat to see them especially since several months back the zoo took them off from exhibit and made the facility that the Snow Leopards and some smaller cats into a private Feline Conservation Center. The zoo has two Snow Leopards which are a female named Ming Wah and her son Gurkha. I found out yesterday that Gurkha is being transferred to a zoo on in Road Island on Tuesday. I am glad they allowed us to see the Snow Leopards this weekend before they shipped Gurkha off to the new zoo. I also found out that they have a new male Snow Leopard in quarantine which will be Ming Wah's official mate since she has not had one for a long time. I am excited that the zoo will be breeding the Snow Leopards again.

Zoo member's morning was from 9 am - 10 am but during that time I mainly mingled with people and talked just catching up since I hd not seen several of the other zoo member's for a few months. Plus when they did the demonstrations of the Snow Leopards the cats where right at the meshing and I hate getting pictures of meshing with the animals cause it shows that they are captive. After Zoo Member's morning was over I headed straight over to the Sumatran Tiger Cubs enclosure I stayed for most of the day with them until 2:45pm except for once to see a few other animals while the cubs took a cat nap with mom in a part of the exhibit that you could not see them. The cubs and Skylar was out in their exhibit all day since the keepers kept the door of their inside enclosure closed. The cubs chased each other all day while Mom was relaxing in the shade most of the day but mom did come up and play with them some and clean them up when ever she needed to.

I was told yesterday that the San Francisco Zoo already had a new location they will be transferring the Tiger Cubs when they get older since the zoo does not have enough room to keep the cubs when it is time for them to leave their mom. Because there are too many boy Sumatran Tigers and not enough females in the United States the cubs will be kept together for a long time so they can grow up together. I am crossing my fingers I have at least a year with the cubs because I have already grown quite attached to them.

Here are some of my favorite pictures I took of them from my yesterdays visit:





]]> *LifesAZoo http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18359080/ http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18359080/ Fri, 16 May 2008 22:15:18 PDT

I went through the last of my photos and I am almost all caught up now and hopefully I will have all my past pictures I want to sell as prints up and going by tonight.

Tomorrow I will be heading out to the San Francisco Zoo to take more pictures because it is Zoo Member's Morning and they will be featuring the Snow Leopards. I can not guarantee good pictures of them since they are behind meshing that most of the time gets in the way but I will have other pictures that i will be uploading from tomorrows trip in the next couple of days.


"Do or Do Not There is No Try" ]]> *LifesAZoo http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18348470/ http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18348470/ Fri, 16 May 2008 08:21:38 PDT

I would like to Thank Everyone that has stopped by Commented, Faved or are Watching me.

As soon as I get caught up on all my photographs that I am uploading I will stop by and look through your deviations and reply back to your messages. Since I joined up on May 12th I have been going through several 100 DVD's of pictures of mine which I can say I have finished going through them but now I am working on the pictures that are still on my computer that are a couple months worth. I am trying to get caught up before my next photo shoot at the San Francisco Zoo which is tomorrow.

Again thanks for all the comments, faves and watching because I greatly appreciate.

-Susan L. Pettitt

]]> *LifesAZoo http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18319278/ http://LifesAZoo.deviantart.com/journal/18319278/ Wed, 14 May 2008 11:27:24 PDT
I go by the name "Lifes A Zoo" because most of my photography takes place in different zoos and because I love to take pictures of animals. The main zoo that I take pictures at is the San Francisco Zoo but also take pictures at the Oakland Zoo and Happy Hollow Zoo. When ever I visit another city I try to hit the local zoo also. I also like going hiking and taking my camera with me since I always see animals during my walks up in the hills where I hike.

For almost 2 years I donated pictures to the San Francisco Zoo which they use my pictures on their website, in their quarterly magazine named "Zoo Views", in Zoo Animails (monthly e-mail), in zoo advertisements and some of my pictures are used on exhibit signs.

I have also had some of my other work published in Newspapers and on company websites for their headers.

I have been using other websites for over a year now to sell my works on products which I still use but I never found a website that I could use for prints that was of good price for me until now. This is where deviantART comes into play which I was reading about the other day. After researching into deviantART and the price they have for the subscription plans I felt like this was the place to go especially since I am asked all the time if I sell prints anywhere and now I can say YES. I am excited about this new adventure I am about to take with deviantART.

My plan here on deviantART is to upload the photos I will be selling prints of my work. I normally take pictures once a week of animals so I will be uploading my favorite shots from that week. My plan is that each week i will be adding new prints for people to buy. I plan on using the Journal section to feature my favorite photos that I took during that photo session each week.

I would like to say Thanks to everyone that has dropped by and commented and made my pictures favorites. You all seem like a friendly group of people.

-Susan L. Pettitt

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