Lion

While in Florida I visited the Naples Zoo and photographed several species of animals and plants. There were two adult lions, a male and female, in one cage and the enclosure wasn't very large. For years I refused to go to zoos because I hated to see animals caged, but in recent years zoos have changed by building larger enclosures. Even though the enclosures were very small at this zoo, I did get an opportunity to take a couple of close-ups of a beautiful animal I hadn't seen, or heard, before (except on TV).

As usual, I can make a photography lesson out of the photos I am sending today. To avoid the wire cage, I used my zoom lens on maximum zoom and stood as close to the wire as possible. As you can see the cage is nearly invisible in the first two photos. When I zoomed back to a wider angle, the cage was annoying and I had to switch to manual focus in order to focus on the lion.