Magilla Gorilla

I spent a day at San Diego Zoo Safari Park (formerly called San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park). I took my intervalometer around and made some videos.

One stop, thank you Jerry for the suggestion, was the gorilla's enclosure. Gorillas sit and sit and sit and don't move a lot. A perfect subject for a time-lapse video. Throw in the throngs of people looking at the gorillas and you have a dynamic movie.

I set up my camera under a tree out of the way of the people and aimed it at the large male who was sitting in a cave. It's hard to see him till he comes out into the sun. He's joined by three other gorillas.

Near the end a keeper appears above the enclosure and she throws treats down to the apes. Then the keeper moved to the other end of the enclosure and threw more treats. The gorillas left my end and the video ends.

While I was shooting the gorillas, a little girl wanted to know what I was up to. I told her that I was making a time-lapse movie of the gorillas and would be uploading it to YouTube. She wanted to give me her phone number so I could call her to let her know when the video was there so she could watch it. I thought it wouldn't be a good idea for her to give someone she doesn't know her phone number. I wrote down the keywords that should find the video once it gets posted. I gave that to her mother. I wonder if she'll look at it now that it's available.

I had the camera take a picture every two seconds for 56 minutes starting at 12:18pm, Friday, November 12, 2010. I cut out many frames at the beginning since they showed only the empty enclosure. The big male just couldn't be seen. The shots are played at 24 frames per second.

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