北京动物园 beijing zoo (2020)
- my equipment:
- a7r3 + 24-70mm f4 + 70-200mm f4 + laowa ffii 10-18mm f4.5-5.6 zoom
- miliboo mtt602a tripod
- rode vmgo kit
- dji osmo action
spring, march, 2019, i saw a post on weibo about elephant, focus on the elephant long nails problem. back then, i didn’t follow any animal blogger yet, it’s an odd thing that post showed on my home page. but just like the internet, i forgot this thing very soon.
in the summer of that year, i had a pet lizard and a tree frog, and i started to follow some animal blogger, and then i found that elephant problem still exist. a bunch of people trying to solve this. beside beijing zoo, most zoos in china have animal benefit problems, and the beijing zoo is the most representative.
at the end of the year, school term finished, and my work is done. i started shooting in beijing zoo. i wanted to expose the situation of the animals, but i found a lot of interesting things.
there is a lady in the orangutan house who interacts with chimps everyday (not sure if it is every day, but she’s there every time i went), the secerity staff in the zoo asked me what i was shooting for several times, and asked me if i was the media or an individual.
you know what happened then, covid-19 break out, due to that, the zoo had closed. i was there at the zoo-closing day,24 janurary 2020, in the afternoon, loudspeaker broadcasted let everyone evacuate in order, and get your ticket money returned. police got in zoo, ask everyone to leave.
i only been there one time during it closing. in the spring festival, a few people checking the notice at the front gate. the blood donation bus still there, i don’t know what are they insisting, at this point time, who will go to the zoo donate blood? nobody even donate blood in the normal days. two or three staffs in the bus, come out smoke or throw trash occasionally.
security enjoyed the sunshine at the ticket booth, he noticed my camera and got up. almost all the people i saw was wearing mask, only a few had the courage exposing their face.beijing zoo without visitors is rare, people passing by can not resist take photo with this but wearing mask, looks strange.
zoo reopened on 23 march, may because of the quarantine, people were stressed out, zoo were full of people again. if there was no mask on visitor’s faces, you can’t tell it’s a difficult time.
indoor venues all closing, chimps lady was not there. the weather was good, sun was big, visitor was happy, elephant’s nail was long.