A Wolf, a Bear, and Almost a Crocodile

One weekend in September, I went to the woods to take a break from work. I turned off my phone and took off my headphones to spend some time alone in nature. Walking along the trail, I noticed a narrow path branching off to the side. I wondered where it led, so I took it. The path brought me to a clearing with a wooden zoo.

There was quite a mix of animals: a wolf, a bear, a dog, a bull, a horse, a donkey, and a pig. Or a boar — I couldn't quite tell. Among the birds and other figures was a pike, though it looked much more like a crocodile.

The sun was getting low, with light coming through the trees. Golden hour was approaching. I wasn't in a hurry: I took my time choosing an angle, focusing manually, and taking a few shots.

I brought two 50mm lenses: a Chinese TTArtisan f/1.4 with manual focus and Viktor Zharikov’s Shining monocle lens. I shot almost everything in this selection with the TTArtisan.

I love the look of both lenses. The TTArtisan isn't clinically sharp, but its images have a very warm feel. I like Shining specifically for black-and-white photography. I'm not a big fan of its color images, but the black-and-white results are very good. All the black-and-white shots in this selection were taken with it.

This gallery only includes photos from the animal clearing. I'll publish the other woodland shots later, in a monthly post.