spiders

I do not normally seek out eight legged critters, however if I cross their path, or they cross mine, I certainly will take the time to snap a off a few photos. Here are a couple of photos of spiders I passed on the trail.

her first turtle

This turtle was saved from certain road death by me, and I brought it home and enjoyed it's company for a few hours. I decided to show it to the dogs, thinking they would be interested. They all sniffed it and then walked away uninterested except for Khaki. She couldn't get enough of it's scent, and watched it very closely. She did not try to hurt it, just seemed incredibly curious about it.

bloomin' tree

I love the contrast between the bright blue sky and the delicate pink of the blooms of this tree. It really works well for me, even though it is a lot of pink!

natural framing

Another favorite motto of mine is "natural framing", and I love to find unique ways to use whatever is out there to "frame" my photo. Obviously, this is not a new technique or even an uncommon one, I just was able to do it without much effort and it seemed to come naturally to me. My eyes have always been good at seeing the natural framing usually available in tree branch form. The first photo was taken in Yosemite National Park, I doctored it a bit in photoshop, because my original picture was a bit washed out. The tree branch added a nice touch to what otherwise would have been just another nice waterfall picture. The second picture is from Zion National Park, and is using a rock formation, and a tree branch to form the natural frame of a rock formation in the distance. The sun also provided an element to this frame, as it lit up the distant rock formation , but was dark in the foreground of the photo.

beachy

During the southeast road trip, I snapped this picture at one of the beaches we were driving by. I have always loved it, looking through the windy grassy to see the ocean beyond.

dirty boy

This is another favorite horse picture. My mom is a fan of this particular photo. Dozer, our mustang, had just rolled in the mud before I snapped this photo. It's just him. I think it might be genetics!

buttermoth

I found this little guy on the window and he stayed there for quite a while posing away. How can one resist a slut of a insect?

yellow leaf

I have always been a fan of leaf pictures, I have tried to get some decent ones of my own, and always end up not liking what I get. My leaf pictures usually look fake or too green. This is one of the few leaf pictures I have taken that I like...probably because the leaf is yellow.

chimp see, chimp do

My first video to try to post. Let's see how this works....

I screamed like a girl

While at the zoo, Alison (pictured above) and I visited the Lorakeet cage to feed them nectar out of little plastic cups. As you can see they were very aggressive for their chance to get high on nectar. One of those birds flew off of Alison's shoulder directly at my face, clipped my cheek with its wing and landed on my shoulder, shrieking in my ear. I was surprised and screamed like a girl...a manly girl, but still I did jump and grunt. The nectar cup I was holding flew into the air, when I jumped and nectar flew everywhere, including my cheek, neck, Alison's face and neck and all over my camera. These aggressive little nectar whores continue to shriek in our ears. Alison ended up with a wet willy given to her by one of the birds that later climbed on her head. I had one nibbling on my neck. It was a unique experience made totally worthwhile by seeing a bird stick it's tongue all the way into Alison's ear.

CRA meetings

These pictures show my super cool friends in Ohio! I have known Alison and Adam since I lived in Laramie. They have since moved to the evil east coast and I have to harass them every once in a while! They are gracious enough to keep inviting me back...or they cant bear the thought of telling me to never return. The first picture is the amazing Alison holding up that log all by herself, she did not need Adams help, as you can tell by the priceless look on his face. Sanity, the pooch, was amazing by her owners super-human strength! The next picture is Fessic....I have no clue if that spelled right, after he sniffed out a web. Followed by Sanity lounging about! I love my Ohio friends, I highly recommend them!

critters behind glass

Here are some more critters I stalked at the zoo. My next blog will reveal why I screamed like a girl at the zoo.

What is he doing you ask?

I just got back from visiting the great Alison and Adam in Ohio. Alison and I went to the zoo in Cleveland, where the all the animals were in rare form performing for us. But this little guy was the star of the show. He liked to play with himself...a lot. He tried to be discreet, but we all knew what he was up to. More zoo pictures and stories soon.

the validation continues....

Whenever I show people some of my photos, I always include these two shots, and without a doubt these are some of the the most loved. These were taken in Yosemite National park, and is of course Yosemite falls. I can' t really take all that much credit for them. I was photographing the falls in the "normal"way, when an older gentleman challenged me to get the falls and the reflection in the shot. So I tried...and then I photographed just the reflection which is the second picture. It is not an eye trick, its right side up.

I was in Borders last night, and my eye was drawn to the calendar section, I found a Yosemite calendar. To my surprise, I found a photo that was eerily similar to the first one posted. It had the bark of a tree off to the left side of the photo, instead of the right side like mine. It validated the stranger's great idea. Thank you, Stranger, because of you, I always look to get reflections and unique angles, anything but "normal"!

a two-headed yellow dog

Okay, so its not really a two-headed dog, but it sort of looks like one. I was driving home from work tonight thinking of what to put on the old blog, and thought to myself, "I have a funny picture that looks like the dog has two heads...that will work!" So here are all of my dogs staring at the turtle in my hand. There is Kelly on the left, with Khaki being the lower head, Chase the upper head, and Spike on the end. It also resembles an "oreo" cookie, black on both sides, creamy in the middle...well, that sort of sounds dirty.

my brother

This blog is dedicated to my brother, Ken, who I hear is telling his friends to visit my blog. So in his honor, I figure I should give them something to see involving him. Friends of Ken, I give you some cool shots of him. I hope he doesn't mind, I guess if he does, I will hear about it.....

When I moved to Wyoming, Ken and younger brother, Greg, helped to make the trek out there. This picture was taken at Snowy Range, just outside of Laramie back in 2001.

This is a photo of Ken shoeing Lance taken this summer at the new spread in Tennessee.

This photo was also taken this summer, while he was making a shoe.

In this photo, we see Ken and his mini, Maggie hanging out in the snow. They have a special bond, and she tends to get jealous of him when he is around and not paying attention to her...typical woman!

This is one of my all time favorite pictures, showing Ken working on Annie. She looks awesome, and he is shown in full rasping mode!