London Zoo is a family favourite of ours. We go several times a year but a winter visit and a meeting with Santa is always high on the list. We've missed out seeing him these past couple of years as child 1 was too old and child 2 was too young.... until now!
London Zoo is also one of those places that is great to visit with family; the children are always amazed seeing the animals and learn so much. I always get Aaryan to read the plaques besides each animal as opposed to just looking at an animal without knowing what it is.
Santa's Grotto this year was full of excited children and Aarshia was one of them. in the waiting area, they had several huts with activities for the children to do whilst waiting. Aarshia made her own Christmas tree decoration whilst she waited for the big man! And then our turn came!
The grotto was of course dark and this was photo taken at f2.8, ISO 2500 and 1/500s (I could have dropped my shutter speed but Aarshia was moving about and I didn't want it to be blurry. Instead, I opted to raise the ISO and make the sensor more sensitive to light).
I was so happy to get this shot. It was lovely to have captured the sheer joy on Aarshia's face when she sat down next to Santa. Santa was great and spent time talking to her and asking her what 'Shimmer & Shine' toys were! He even got a goodbye hug!
Taken with the same setting as above: f2.8, ISO 2500 and 1/500sec
After Santa we wondered around and took some more photos. This is probably my favourite from this visit:
Taken with the 70-200 at 116mm, f2.8, ISO 400 and 1/640sec
And no visit to London Zoo is complete without seeing some monkeys!
In summary, grab your child.... and a camera, and make a visit to London Zoo for a guaranteed great day out and lots of photo opportunities.
