by Carla Caruso

The Adelaide Zoo in Park 11 is a magnet for aspiring nature and wildlife photographers.

Among such shutterbugs is Woodville’s Kevin Roberts. If you’ve stumbled across a stunning zoo image on Instagram recently, chances are it’s one of his.

Here, we hand over to Kevin to tell us all about his love of photography and the Adelaide Zoo…

“I started my Instagram account, Kev’s Photography, in April 2021.

“I love taking photos of animals and birds at the Adelaide Zoo [Park 11] and wanted to show others my images. So, I started to think about a social platform to exhibit my photos. I chose Instagram.

“My wife, Kathryn, bought me a zoo membership for my 60th birthday. Soon after, I took early retirement from being a butcher for 45 years. Adelaide Zoo has become my happy place to practice my photography skills.

“I was only saying to my wife the other day that it might sound strange that I’m a former butcher and an animal advocate. But there are many animal lovers out there who also eat meat.

“I visit the Adelaide Zoo at least once a week (midweek) and sometimes twice.

“I have a Nikon D7200 SLR, which I bought second-hand, with a Tamron 180-600 mm lens. My favourite photo editing program is [Adobe’s] Lightroom.

“I’ve met a few fellow hobby photographers at the zoo, including Fran Mussared, Brooklyn Saliba, and Simon Coleman.

“My favourite animal at the zoo is Kluet, the male Sumatran orangutan. He is such a shy boy and often hides his beautiful face from view.

“I also love visiting the Adelaide Botanic Garden [next door] for the birdlife, finding many different species there. The [bird] species change with the seasons, with different plants flowering. So, it’s handy all-year-round and gives me more opportunities to improve my photography.

“I keep myself busy with a few other hobbies too, including beach metal detecting and restoring a vintage lawnmower.”

Main photo, top, of a lemur at the Adelaide Zoo by Kevin Roberts.