On July 28th, I ventured out during the morning and early afternoon to a local zoo about 15-minutes from my apartment. I visited this zoo quite a bit when I was a child, but haven't been back in quite some time. Since I've been looking for new subjects to photograph as of late I decided to head back to Wildlife Prairie Park Zoo near Edwards, IL on this day while enjoying the beautiful summer weather. Unfortunately, despite the great weather a lot of the animals at this zoo seemed to not want to "play" in front of my camera on this morning and afternoon. With that being said, I did manage to get a few good shots here and there. Since most of the animals weren't cooperating in front of my camera I spent at least a hour or two in the butterfly house at this zoo. Over the last few weeks, I had already captured some great photos of butterflies at other local parks. On this day though monarch butterflies were plentiful and much easier to photograph in this particular setting so I couldn't pass up a good opportunity. I was quite pleased with several photos I shot in this butterfly house! Once it neared mid-afternoon I headed back to Peoria, IL to relax for the rest of the day. I've added photos I shot at this local zoo below:
One of the many photogenic butterflies in this zoo's butterfly house!
Monarch butterflies are endangered unfortunately...
A goat posing for a quick photo!
A rather pleasing shot!
Our national bird, the bald eagle!
I absolutely love this shot!
Lots of wildlife here including bison grazing!
An up-close and personal monarch butterfly...
A sheep posing for a photo...
A photogenic portrait orientation shot!
This chicken was very noisy...
Another monarch butterfly...
This monarch can be clearly seen enjoying some nectar!
Another photogenic butterfly!
A duck, "quack...quack...quack Mr. Ducksworth"!
I've photographed lots of butterflies this year...
A rather colorful shot!
That's all for now. I'll be posting once again rather soon since I visited another local zoo on July 29th as well. I'll update with that post at a later date.
