Of course, I have not independently verified that the St. Louis Zoo is, indeed, the best free zoo in the country, but my goodness it is a pleasure to go there. Mr. Hippopotamus pictured here was doing circular laps in his pond and it was a wonder to be so close.
I hear hippos are mean.. Great picture!
Nice !
I love this photo! Such a great capture, especially with the little girl’s reflection.
Agree with you, it’s really nice photo.
Great photo! I haven’t been to the zoo this summer, maybe I should go lol
You did it again, I just saw this on freshly pressed. Good for you Neil! Though I liked the giraffe better!!! c
Thank, Cecilia. It is a very surprising pleasure. I might add, though, that based on comment totals, my blog is not as successful as yours
I should add that all the attention your blog gets is very richly deserved!
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Great photo. When I go to South Africa one of my favorite things is seeing wild hippos. Such cool animals.
A FREE zoo?!?! And a hippopotamus? Way too cool…
It is a free zoo (with some exhibits charging) and a very, very good one. If you are in the STL-which also has a free art museum, Shakespeare festival, municipal theater (some seats)-you should definitely visit it.
nice article. I wish our zoo was free… though our library does “loan” a set of zoo passes out, which is pretty cool… hippos rock, but I’m more of a primate kind of guy myself
woow. awesome! Thanks for the cool photo!
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Really nice pic
Thanks for sharing
His head looks like a tree trunk. Even still, if it’s free to go see a tree-trunk-headed hippo, then I’m in.
Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!
Very interesting photo!
That looks like quite a big hippo. My boyfriend’s little brother is nuts about them.
But now, my question is.. is this zoo really free? Ahh! Cause Zoo Miami is pretty expensive ;o
Mariajose, it is free, indeed, though some of the special exhibits cost money. http://www.stlzoo.org/yourvisit/hourspricesdirections.htm The free stuff is not shoddy either, but very nice.
I should totally make a letter to Zoo Miami about this. haha. I’m sure it would be packed even more everyday but it’ll save me some money. haha. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed & will definitely check out the rest of your blog.
AWESOME
Awww man I wanna meet him….lol
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Wow, a free zoo! They must have some great corporate sponsors or something… or maybe your taxes are really high? Lol. I have lived in 5 states and only one had a free zoo… that is in Washington DC (and it costs you $20. to park, so it’s not as free as one would like). I love zoos, tho! We actually went to our local one yesterday… sadly, we have no hippos there. I like hippos!
It looks like it just might be the best!
Great photo!
Mr. Hippopotamus seems very relaxed, while the kids gape at him. He is quite remarkable to look at, I agree. I haven’t been to a zoo in ages … maybe Mr. Hippopotamus is sending me a message that I should visit one again soon.
Amazing photo and a great capture. How alert you are to spot such an opportunity. What camera do you use?
Thank you, Social Literary. I suppose the light conditions were pretty perfect for reflections. In such things, there is sometimes a little serendipity/luck involved too. I use a first generation Canon 5D, which is a pretty amazing camera, but with how this aquarium is set up, I think any DSLR would have done the trick.
o my! cutest photo of all times! I now want one in my pond
Beautiful photos!
Mr. Hippopotamus looks pretty happy swimming his laps. I have always heard good things about the St. Louis zoo. One day, hopefully, I will get to see it. Great picture!!
I’ve been to the St. Louis Zoo a few years back, and I remember being very impressed with it too, and couldn’t believe it was all free! The monkey house was probably my favorite part. Great picture of the hippo!
Wow! Neat!
Free? Is there more than on free zoo?? Ours cost an arm, leg and a book of food stamps!!
Great shot. I get to St. Louis every couple of years – I’ll check out the zoo next time. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed.
thats a lot of water!
It’s kinda weird but cool reading a blog about where I used to live. Used to love going to the zoo when I was little.
i have not seen wild hippos before,that must be a big aquarium to keep such a big hippo
Well, Mini.Sun, it is a huge aquarium in some ways and in other ways not so much. The hippos can gallivant around quite a bit, but it is not tremendously long. Still, it is amazing, especially with all those fish in there with the hippos.
I love that picture! For anyone in the east Texas region, the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin has a nice hippo tank . . . I haven’t been able to get a photo nearly this nice at it, though . . .
Great picture. I have not been to that particular zoo, but the Omaha, NE zoo is quite great. The closest I’ve ever been to a hippo is when I was in a canoe in Kariba Dam (off of the Zambezi river in Zimbabwe), and I was REALLY scared of it. But I could not see underwater to see if it was cuter than this guy.
alas, i have never encountered a hippo, but it looks like quite the experience! i love going to the zoo, it’s so interesting and fun! i’m glad you had a good time with mr. hippo.
-alexandra
Good fun
Wow! Nice shot!
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I love the reflections of the kids faces in the tank!
We have an English Bulldog named Sarge.
We have always said she looks like a Hippo when she swims. Well she sinks more than swims.
We just took her swimming in Lake Tahoe in August.
She looks just like your hippo’s.
Here is a link to the travel blog we are doing and it goes to her picture. She is about half way down on that page.
http://markandlauree.blogspot.com/2011/08/past-3-weeks-have-been-full-of.html
I love Hippo’s and English Bulldogs.
Mark
that hippo looks like a rhino
Neil: My husband is from St. Louis. He was very excited when he saw the reference to St. Louis on your blog – thanks for giving him something to smile about!
Oh, and I just blogged about the value of “texture” in photography. And of course, your photo of the hippo is rich in texture – it’s almost 3-dimensional! Wonderful, and congrats on being freshly pressed!
PS. You inspired me to perhaps do a blog post on some of my favorite zoo photo shots I’ve done. Thanks for the inspiration!
I have been to zoos all over the world, and one has never been free! I love it already. And a great hippo! I’m there.
Delightful picture – great clarity and the reflection of the children in the window is special
Great photograph. Congrats on FP, too!
beautiful animal on earth…!
OMG!! It is huge!!
Lovely shot. Great image of the hippo, and the reflected child’s expression really makes the photo.
Such a beautiful and powerful creature. Wonderful shot.
They are so cute but so cranky!
Hippopotamazing!
I was there this weekend on Saturday and Mr. Hippopotamus didn’t do a dance when I visited him. You must be special. :-/
But I agree though; it has to be the best free zoo there is… okay, at least in the top 5. It was pretty awesome. I liked the chimps and their playfulness
Congrats on being FP!!
Zoos are rarely free in the Southern Hemisphere unless you count national parks. It’s great to get to see a hippo in zoo that does not charge. Lucky you!
really cool picture!!
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Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Connie
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Votad mi foto si os gusta plis!!
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THE SAINT LOUIS ZOO IS FREE?!?!?!
You just changed the course of my next three weeks. I was going to St Louis to visit a friend anyway, am planning to go to the City Musuem, and now the zoo. Anything else I might not have heard of by looking at pictures of the arch?
Ah, Miss Tuggy, the zoo being free is only the beginning of the story! The very decent St. Louis Art Museum is also free: http://www.slam.org/ as is the Science Center http://www.slsc.org/, both which are also in Forest Park. The world-class Missouri Botanical Gardens http://www.mobot.org/default.asp is free on Wed and Sat morning (but sadly for city and county residents only) and the beautiful Tower Grove Park is nearby http://www.towergrovepark.org/ If you go to the Arch, which you must as it is amazing just to look at, especially close-up, the ride up costs, but the quaint little museum at the bottom is free. I am a sucker for the building of doc “Monument to the Dream,” but it can also be had on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Monument-Dream-Construction-Gateway-Arch/dp/B000B45NAC Well, I could go on and on about cool stuff. I will just leave you with one awesome places to eat Crown Candy Kitchen http://crowncandykitchen.net/
Ooooh I’m all over that. Please, keep going! I’m only there for a weekend this time, but I’m sure I’ll be back since one of my close friends is going to grad school there now.
I did the arch when I was younger (I was a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fan so we drove up to see her old homestead and stopped in St Louis along the way, along with Mark Twain’s cabin and Mammoth Caves) so I don’t know if I want to do it now, might wait til I have my own children along with me/a steady job, but I’ll see if I have time to check out the museum!
It’s so strange to think of going to a city to see the sights, as odd as that sounds. I started social dancing two years ago and since then almost every time I travel it’s to dance, so you get there and you dance all night, then you take classes the next day and stay out dancing all night again, then you do it again, then you get on a plane to go home! The only exception to this would probably be LA, where we went to the beach and to check out Hollywood. That was fun. We gave free hugs.
I had to click because it looked like the hippo at the San Diego Zoo. Had the same toothy grin, maybe they are related. Heh! LOVE the reflection of the little girl. Awesome!
Lovely!
SO cute!
As someone who has a rather deep affinity for hippos (as affirmed by the mini “shrine” here on my desk at work), I particularly LOVE this photo out of the many I’ve seen on your blog so far. Every time we visit the zoo, I stop by this attraction, though it’s difficult to get any sort of good shot, what with all the little curious faces pressed against the glass (and I’m not talking about mine).
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