Basic photography class field trip to the Detroit Zoo

Every semester of my photography class, I take the class to the Detroit zoo for a field trip.  It’s a chance to get out in actual settings and demonstrate some of the techniques that we’ve been discussing for the past few weeks.
Usually I bring my SLR and shoot pics with the rest of the class, but today I decided to bring my canon sd870 point and shoot camera to see what I could come away with.
We had a REALLY weird day in terms of the weather.  Driving to the zoo, it was raining so hard I could barely see out the windshield.  When I got to the zoo a few minutes later, the sun was coming out and then minutes after that, there was not a cloud in the sky.  Halfway through the field trip, it got dark and stormy again and the zoo staff warned everyone to take shelter as they were expecting 60 mph winds and hail.  It never hit the zoo, but Cheridy told me it did hit at home.  Within 30 minutes, it was a warm and sunny day again.
Anyway, here’s a few pics:

Halloween decoration:

I loved the way the sunlight was coming through the leaves.

Funky sculpture in the museum:

Butterfly shot with macro settings:

The storm clouds rolling in:

Snake scales:

Snake scales:

Cute little bugger: