National Zoo

I'm back from my trip to D.C. The research conference went well. Both of my speaking presentations were fairly well received and I didn't get hit with too many hard questions. Just for the heck of it, I'll briefly describe what they were. The first presentation was from a study I have been involved with that studies what type of Accessible Pedestrian Signal will best benefit blind pedestrians. I was presenting a tool that we have developed that will help traffic engineers know where to best place these devices. To see a description of what APS are, go here. The second presentation was on our study of the behaviors of pedestrians and bicyclists at roundabouts, specifically how they interact with motorists.

Last year at this conference, I discovered that the Smithsonian National Zoo is only a couple blocks away. This year I came prepared with my superzoom camera, ready to get some shots of animals up close. You might have heard that there was a panda cub born there recently, which is a pretty big deal. I was fortunate enought to get in and see him while he was outside and playing. That's a fairly rare occurrence since apparently he sleeps a lot of the time. It was cool to be able to get some good shots of him, as well as other animals around the zoo. In my efforts to be a good presenter and hold your attention with visual aids, here are some of my favorite shots from my photoshooting trip.


This is Tai Shan, the 6-month old male cub.


Tigers are way cooler than lions.


This big lizard gave me a nice toothy grin.


Iguanas are cool. If you've ever touched one, you'll know that their skin feels about as smooth as silk.


Deer-mice are funny looking with their spindly little legs, but they're pretty cute.


And here we have the snobbiest looking tamarin I've ever seen.