Tag Archives: photography

Picture Postcard: Turtle Jailbreak

30 Jan

January 30, 2013

Saarah and I were in Petco last week looking to buy a filter for her turtle tank. What is a turtle tank? It is EXACTLY the same as a fish tank except that A- it contains a turtle instead of fish and B- it stinks to high heaven because it turns out that her turtle may be the smelliest reptile on Earth. But while the tanks may be the same, the filters are not. Turtle tanks require stronger, bigger filters.

Just as an aside, the Petco by us had only one turtle filter left, and the box it was in appeared to have been sat on by an elephant. The filter inside seemed ok who knows? Long story short, Saarah got a 10% discount.

While she was shopping I was looking at all the animals. I am easily distracted and spent a lot longer than you would expect looking at the birds. Eventually I got over to the turtles and, not having my cell phone or a camera, asked Saarah to snap this picture:

turtle jailbreak

I’ve cropped it for you at the end of this post.

While it was around 15 degress outside, inside the store it was comfortable but it must have been cold for the animals because I saw many of the reptiles huddled together. These turtles had fromed a pyramid and the one on top kept stretching up to get to the top of the tank, looking for all the world like he was trying to escape. Where did he plan to go? I have no idea, but the next aisle over had hamsters and guinea pigs so those furry critters might be just the fur coats these turtles were looking for.

turtle jailbreakCROP

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Picture Postcard: The Bronx Zoo

21 Jun

June 21, 2012

I went to the Bronx Zoo on Sunday, June 17th. It was a nice day, warm but not hot, with plenty of sun but luckily plenty of shade too. There were plenty of people there but it was just short of being crowded. I managed to take almost a hundred pictures with my Nikon Coolpix. I upgraded from my old Olympus, which was a nice camera but it was starting to get old. The Nikon has a much better zoom and better features. I still prefer old-school SLR cameras but for my purposes this is enough of a camera for the zoo.

Much as I like this picture I can’t take too much credit for it. That bird (I’m sorry but I forgot what it is) stayed in the position the whole time I was there, just shuffling around a little on the branch. I think it was showing off. and never once did he turn around to face the camera.

Right place at the right time. I slightly cropped this picture to center the bears a little more. It was warm and these bears were not fighting, they were playing around in the water. There were other bears who were just lounging around in the sun. Notice that the “fallen” tree is bolted in place. Here is the uncropped picture:

The same picture as above, uncropped.

Typical monkey (gibbon?) pose, but this guy is looking right into the camera and makes the shot.

This baboon was right up against the glass and spent his time either ignoring us or showing us his fangs. You can’t tell from the picture but she’s about five feet tall.

Sleepy gorilla. My friend thinks he is sulking.  Most of the animals were taking it easy in the pre-summer heat. Can you blame them? For me it is the primates that make the zoo worth visiting.

No animals here, just some of the scenery at the zoo. Going to the Bronx Zoo is (or to be more accurate, the Wildlife Conservation Society) is like going to another world. I know that is a cliché but when you are there you forget that you are in New York. With the summer heat coming on us now is the perfect time to go. 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →