Welcome to Shamu Stadium

It's a new show in the Shamu Stadium - - - it's called One Ocean.

This particular day the show included five killer whales.

They were very impressive. Such a wonder to see something so huge, jumping completely out of the water.

It was like they were playing!

This was my favorite photograph from our day at Sea World!

I wonder how many pounds of fish it takes in treats to get through the show?


One huge difference we noticed in this show was that the trainers no longer get in the water with the whales.
They used to swim with the whales and ride them around the tank.
This was as close as the trainers came to getting in the water.



The sun was starting to set, hence the pinks in the water and the pink/red reflecting on the whales in some of the pictures.

The whales still kick up the water - soaking anyone in the bottom section of the stadium - the splash zone.

He is literally spitting water out of his mouth - hahaha!

How can something this huge seem so graceful?

Another favorite photograph.

And, of course, they waved good-bye to us at the end of the show :).

Then we headed out to the parking lot to head back to the hotel. What a beautiful sunset!
If you haven't been to Sea World lately, you should definitely check it out!

I Heart Faces Furry Faces Challenge

This week's photo challenge at i heart faces is Furry Faces. My first choice was this shot of my son with his ferret Avery. Jason and Bobbie raise ferrets and love them like children. The ferrets even have their very own room in the house. To check out more furry face shots, head on over to I Heart Faces here.

To edit this photo, I used photoshop and added some film grain, followed by MCP Actions' Finish It action, then added a burn edge in MCP Actions Frosted Memories action.


www.iheartfaces.com

Mobile Shots at the Ranch

We were at the ranch just before sunset tonight. I wish I had my camera there because the light shining through the trees was wonderful. Oh well. Cell phone photography, here we go! The above picture is of Sawyer - with his face in a feed bucket, as usual.

This is Gus, Mark's bad boy. He's actually behaving better lately, so I can't complain.


Rascal. Kali's horse. Kali is coming home in a couple days. I imagine seeing Rascal is going to be one of our first stops!

This or That Thursday, 11-17-2011

I'm trying something new this week. It's This or That Thursday, which you can find here, or by clicking on the box above.
You post photos of this or that, I am guessing from your week. So, this is what I did earlier in the week.

For the past couple months, I have been teaching a photography class for a group of local homeschoolers.
I teach a lesson, then we do some hands-on shooting to apply what we (hopefully) learned in class that day.

This week we worked on animal/pet photography and we had some special guests with us for the day to be our models.

There were two beautiful little pygmy goats that belong to one of the students.
They were so sweet, and were happy as long as they were getting treats.


"All this posing is hard work! Hey! How about a treat for me???"

We had some beautiful little dogs visit with us to have their portraits shot.


We also had a chicken, a fancy foo-foo black and white chicken with awesome feathers, BUT I neglected to get a photo of him. So sad. :( Sorry. I love my students! They are becoming awesome photographers! You can check out some of their work on Facebook, by liking the page "Photography Rocks".

To check out more This or That, or to post your own shots, please visit here.

Pet Edit

Original photo. I took this picture a couple days ago during a hands-on portion of a class I taught on pet photography. I've been working with a group of wonderful homeschool students this fall. We've been studying the basics of photography. On this particular Monday we studied pets and animals in general. Several of the students brought pets to be our models. This sweet little puppy belongs to one of the students.

All the students know to watch for background distractions, but due to the circumstances of our shoot, some distractions were necessary. I used photoshop for my edits. I brightened, I sharpened, and I used brushes to take out the owner's legs and shoes in the background. This is a relatively new technique that I am trying to perfect and I am happy with the way it really makes the animal stand out. What do you think?

Lowry Park Zoo

The Lowry Park Zoo is my favorite place to go take photos. Normally there are a lot of babies.
Not true on this particular trip. This beautiful primate, known as a mandrill, was located in the Asian Gardens.

My favorite primate is the Wolf's Guenon, also in the Asian Gardens.

Yesterday, I talked with a blog friend living in Malaysia. She has wolf's guenons living in her neighborhood.
These little guys always want their picture taken. They pose for the cameras :).

Normally the black and white colobuses are good for a couple babies, but not on this trip.

Also in the Asian Gardens (can you tell that was my favorite part of the zoo?) are the nicobar pigeons.
They aren't so excited about my camera. I love their rich colors!

A cownose stingray. What a name - haha! but it fits.

Lionfish. Isn't he pretty?

Here you have an American Bald Eagle. This particular one is at the Lowry Park Zoo because it only has one wing.

I did not look up the official name for this guy. We have an abundance of these where I live. Our very own alligator.
I'd just as soon see them at the zoo instead of out on our lakes and waterways. Sorry, guys, nothing personal.
Well, maybe it is personal. I just don't care for the alligators. At all.

This is a gopher tortoise. We have a bunch of these, too. Sometimes in our yard. We used to have a dog who would
literally go find these and bring them to our porch. What a hoot! We'd put the turtle back in it's hole, and the dog
would go get it and bring it back to the porch. I guess he just liked them :).

Well, I learned something. I thought these were just 'flamingo's, but apparenty they are a special kind. They are Caribbean Flamingos. Who knew?

And there you have just a few of the pictures I brought home from the Lowry Park Zoo. If you ever get the chance to go there, be sure to take a camera.

You can see some of my earlier posts on the Lowry Park Zoo here, here, here, here, here, and here. This last one was a good day for babies :).

The Boys

Never let it be doubted. Gus is in charge. All the time.

He keeps watch over everything . . .

. . . and sticks his nose into everything. I say that in love, and it's true.

Rascal is a mite nosey, too. Usually it has to do with treats, food, or the girls.
No one gets near the mini donkeys without Rascal checking it out.


Rascal belongs to Kali :).

If I had a favorite, Sawyer would be it.
But, you know, we're not supposed to play favorites as parents.

Sawyer is always up for a ride. He's probably the easiest of the three to give you a good ride.
Someone pointed out recently (a couple someones, actually) that I hadn't posted any shots of the ranch animals in a long time.
Hopefully today's post will make up for that :).