Have you ever seen that Kitkat ad in which nature videographers are sitting in a zoo, waiting for the new pandas to come out so they could film them, they finally sit down, turn their backs to lean against the wall so that they can enjoy a “break,” during which the pandas come out wearing roller skates, zip around their space a few times, then retreat into their home just before videographers finish their candy and turn around?
It was 4:35pm and the zoo’s closing time is 4:30. I was just doing one more walk by the polar bears on my way out, hoping that the wolves on the other side of the walking trail would start howling, when I noticed that the polar bear was no longer pacing or sleeping: she was was playing with one of her toys, a black ball.
She started out on land, tossing it, catching it, and occasionally it would fall in the water, so she would reach in and fish it out. Then she did another balancing of the ball on one of her massive paws, tossed it, and it landed in the pool, too far from her reach. Whoops. After a moment’s pause, she threw herself into the water on top of it. And the underwater fun ensued! She floated like an otter with the recovered ball held lovingly on her belly, she tossed it onto the ice, and had fun stalking it, she pushed it under water and caught it as it floated up, and she dribbled it against the floor of her pool. She finally clutched it in one paw and swam to the other side of the pool, out of sight of the underwater viewing area. And it was time for me to head out.
The difficulty of shooting this was that due to the difference in my body heat and the outdoor temperature, holding the camera to my eye resulting in serious fogging of my glasses, so I couldn’t always see what I was pointing at. I relied on my camera’s autofocus abilities in combination with trying to compose using vague shapes seen through fog. Happily, a few turned out.
