gallenwolf
Well-Known Member
Thought I'd post my visit to the RSCC on Sunday. Please keep in mind that this is from the perspective of an amateur "wildlife" photographer, I love critters and all but I'm not as hard core as many on these forums 
First the journey there, there's a straight train from London Bridge railway to Sandwich railway. Costs almost 30 pounds and it's about a 3 hour ride, one way! Mind numbing. The website says that one can take a taxi from the station to the RSCC, however there wasn't one, thankfully I got a phone number prior to getting on the train. In anycase, the phone number is plastered on a window besides the phone booth at the station. The ride between the station and the RSCC is pretty quick, 5 minutes maybe?
The visit starts and end at the cafe - they make a mean ham and cheese panini btw. The first area is an indoor tropical area, you get to see stuff like jaguarundi, sand cats, crowned pigeons, smooth coated otters, ocelots, a hornbill. There was also a tiny monkey species that I forget. Light levels here were pretty low-ish, had to shoot at 1600 with a fast lens. There's a fair amount of space to frame shots, and the crowned pigeons seem pretty mellow, had one walk up to me to get a sip of water from a nearby puddle.
Out of the indoor area, you'll get to see the lemurs and foosa. Oh! There were fishing cats just leaving the indoor area, I had them mistaken for pallas cats/ocelots. I'm horrible. Lemurs we behind a fence, and there are 3 species I think. I only had shots of the bamboo lemur, there was a pair there that was active for a good part of the day. The other two I only saw in the early morning, other times they were in their "house". Foosas have a big glass enclosure. Backlit though, in the current season.
Moving on there is a flamingo area, and besides that gibbons. A small walkway then leads on to the reason why I came all the way down, the new guinea singing dogs. Visitors walk on a high-ish platform, so you'll have to shoot down into the enclosure. Besides them is a area for 3 Aardwolves. Walking further along the walkway brings you to the binturongs, tapirs and sun bears. Binturongs were in a smallish enclosure covered in thick silver wire, I did not bother to use my slr to shoot just caught some images with my point and shoot. Tapir had a large area, as with the sunbears.
Returning to the flamingo area, you can continue on to the snow leopards (the glass here is thick - you can actually see the bent refractions of the leopards through your viewfinder!!!!) - I tried a few shots to make sure my camera/lens wasn't malfunctioning. Then gave up.
The final leg of the trip is through a low light enclosure where some squirel-like furballs were there, in addition to some radiated tortoises. I would like to mention the indoor area is actually split in two, so you'll walk through seeing the jaguarundi, crowned pigeons and gang in one walk, and on the return walk see the otters, sand cats etc. The ocelots were tough to shoot as they were building something there, so can't get close to the fence. Hornbill was similar, had stuff blocking. Otter were very nice to shoot, but I spent more time watching 'em do their stuff.
Most part of the day I was at the NGSD area waiting for the puppies to come out and play. Only saw a little nose for a few seconds peeking out of the kennel and didn't catch shot then. Thankfully at the end of the day, the keepers came over to weigh the puppies and I got one shot that I am very pleased with
In closing, I would like to mention that the cafe has the best, most comfortable chairs. Ever. Well, in all the places I've visited
Regards,
Alvin
First the journey there, there's a straight train from London Bridge railway to Sandwich railway. Costs almost 30 pounds and it's about a 3 hour ride, one way! Mind numbing. The website says that one can take a taxi from the station to the RSCC, however there wasn't one, thankfully I got a phone number prior to getting on the train. In anycase, the phone number is plastered on a window besides the phone booth at the station. The ride between the station and the RSCC is pretty quick, 5 minutes maybe?
The visit starts and end at the cafe - they make a mean ham and cheese panini btw. The first area is an indoor tropical area, you get to see stuff like jaguarundi, sand cats, crowned pigeons, smooth coated otters, ocelots, a hornbill. There was also a tiny monkey species that I forget. Light levels here were pretty low-ish, had to shoot at 1600 with a fast lens. There's a fair amount of space to frame shots, and the crowned pigeons seem pretty mellow, had one walk up to me to get a sip of water from a nearby puddle.
Out of the indoor area, you'll get to see the lemurs and foosa. Oh! There were fishing cats just leaving the indoor area, I had them mistaken for pallas cats/ocelots. I'm horrible. Lemurs we behind a fence, and there are 3 species I think. I only had shots of the bamboo lemur, there was a pair there that was active for a good part of the day. The other two I only saw in the early morning, other times they were in their "house". Foosas have a big glass enclosure. Backlit though, in the current season.
Moving on there is a flamingo area, and besides that gibbons. A small walkway then leads on to the reason why I came all the way down, the new guinea singing dogs. Visitors walk on a high-ish platform, so you'll have to shoot down into the enclosure. Besides them is a area for 3 Aardwolves. Walking further along the walkway brings you to the binturongs, tapirs and sun bears. Binturongs were in a smallish enclosure covered in thick silver wire, I did not bother to use my slr to shoot just caught some images with my point and shoot. Tapir had a large area, as with the sunbears.
Returning to the flamingo area, you can continue on to the snow leopards (the glass here is thick - you can actually see the bent refractions of the leopards through your viewfinder!!!!) - I tried a few shots to make sure my camera/lens wasn't malfunctioning. Then gave up.
The final leg of the trip is through a low light enclosure where some squirel-like furballs were there, in addition to some radiated tortoises. I would like to mention the indoor area is actually split in two, so you'll walk through seeing the jaguarundi, crowned pigeons and gang in one walk, and on the return walk see the otters, sand cats etc. The ocelots were tough to shoot as they were building something there, so can't get close to the fence. Hornbill was similar, had stuff blocking. Otter were very nice to shoot, but I spent more time watching 'em do their stuff.
Most part of the day I was at the NGSD area waiting for the puppies to come out and play. Only saw a little nose for a few seconds peeking out of the kennel and didn't catch shot then. Thankfully at the end of the day, the keepers came over to weigh the puppies and I got one shot that I am very pleased with
In closing, I would like to mention that the cafe has the best, most comfortable chairs. Ever. Well, in all the places I've visited
Regards,
Alvin
