My employer had its annual event for employees last night at The Phoenix Zoo. Not open to the public yet, we had the place to ourselves for ZooLights. “When the sun goes down and the animals go to sleep, the Phoenix Zoo magically transforms into one of the largest holiday lighting events in the southwest with 2.5 million lights and more than 500 custom-made animal and nature light sculptures.” It was still very crowded with several thousand people there but a little less so than when you go to the regular ZooLights. The weather was perfect, everyone was nice, and it was really fun.
I didn’t want to take my camera along and knew that to get really good shots I would also have to haul my tripod so all I had was my point and shoot. The link above has a video of ZooLights if you want to get an idea of what it really looks like but here are a few shots.
The photos look great on the little camera screen but, once home on the computer, they’re all blurry. Oh, well, you get the idea.
The Dancing Trees, set to music, are really fairly awesome and a lot of ooohing and ahhhing ensued.
Another highlight was Stingray Bay, where you can put your hands in the water, after washing them up to the elbow, and let the stingrays brush against them. The stingrays seemed to be having a really good time, swimming furiously around and around and making all sorts of human contact.
They were fascinating to watch. Although most of the other animals were safely tucked away for the night or out-of-bounds, a good time seemed to be had by everyone else.
Glenrosa Journeys 
What a nice thing for the zoo! We used to go there often, but I don’t remember them doing the light thing back then. Great idea! Cool lights!
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No, I think they’ve only been doing it for about 10 years. They get huge crowds for over a month and a half every night and I think the admission is $9 per person so they make a lot of money doing it. It’s a great fundraiser for them.
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Your zoo sure went all out with the lights.
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I think you did a fine job of sharing this event. Your hand was steady enough to get some very nice shots. I’d love to be there and enjoy the whole show first hand!
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What fun! Candace, this is so neat. We don’t have anything like this here. Beautiful images of the lights…my jaw dropped when I saw the zebra, peacok and the trees, love the trees. Thank you for sharing these unique images.
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now that is a perfect way to enjoy the zoo at night & how wonderful that you had it all to yourselves, there is something so amazing about stingrays…
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Hey, any time you see a lit up donkey, it’s good, blurry photo or not! Thanks for sharing your outing.
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The fish and the iguana (komodo or whatever) are incredible!
Very nice place.
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Very punny title —
Good shots for a point and shoot too. Seems rays like that sort of interaction for some reason… maybe it’s the food that gets handed out to (at least in Tulsa)… if you get there at feeding time. I really didn’t see much point in touching them though… 🙂
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I love the Phx zoo! I’ll have to get the boyfriend to take me there for zoolights this year. Nice photos!
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I left the images small on my screen & they looked great! How exciting to let a stingray brush against you. Think I’d be afraid, lol!
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Did you touch one? what do they feel like?
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I didn’t touch them this time because I would have had to remove too many clothes. Another time I did–just like a fish brushing against you…although someone else told me he thought they felt “slimy.”
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The stingray experience sounds like fantastic fun. I think your shots of the lights are perfectly fine – beats carrying around a tripod. Well done, Candace.
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