All Things Are Possible...

We have an assortment of birds, squirrels and now bunnies in our backyard which make the rounds of the neighborhood.  We have some feeders out, and since the bunnies have become more frequent visitors, of course we added carrots - have yet to see one eat one, but they disappear after a week or so of putting them out, so someone is enjoying them.  Hope its the animals. LoL...  So,  with my new gear I've been capturing a lot of shots of the "yard pals" as my file is named, and made a poster out of my favorite shot.

Cheers!

JDol

Zoo-ey #1

Well, I haven't been on my blog for 3 months.  OMG.  I basically used the blog for sewing and I took a hiatus from sewing over the summer.  Don't tell anyone but I've purchased some RTW in the meantime.  So....what have I been doing with my creative juices? Well, Photoshop of course.... I also purchased a new camera -- a digital SLR  Nikon D3200 - it was time... my little Canon point and shoot just wasn't cutting it anymore for my creative desires.  I was a pro for a number of years, owned my own studio, shot more weddings than you can imagine, and loved shooting portraits - i had a real knack for folks and young adults who really disliked their photos being taken - anyway it was fun... then i got burnt out, life happened, and now I'm in a different field.  So, here I am 13 years later with the itch to get back to my creative photography.  So, armed with my new equipment, i set out for Catoctin Wildlife Preserve & Zoo.... it was a hot and steamy summer morning, but let's go to it.  I made it around to some of the zoo, lots of the residents were still sleeping when I went first thing in the morning. But I made my acquaintance with a handful of pals.  Here are my favorite photos of my Catoctin Buddies from my mini adventure.

This is a Patas Monkey, Child

The patas monkey (erythrocebus patas) also known as the Wadi monkey or Hussar monkey, is a ground dwelling monkey distributed over semi-arid areas of West Africa and into East Africa.  It is the only species classified in the genus Erythrocebus

This is an Arctic Wolf pup 

The arctic wolf (Canis lupus arctos), also called snow wolf or white wolf, is a subspecies of the gray wolf, a mammal of the family Canidae.  Arctic wolves inhabit the Canadian Arctic, Alaska, and northern parts of Greenland.  They also have white fur and long canine teeth for killing their prey.

Patas Monkey parent

A pair of Barred Owls

The Barred Owl (Strix varia) is a large typical owl native to North America.  Best known as the Hoot Owl for its distinctive call, it goes by many other names, including Eight Hooter, Rain Owl, Wood Owl, and Striped Owl.

Ostrich - this one looked young.

The ostrich (Struthio Camelus) shares the order Struthioniformes with the kiwis, emus, rheas, and cassowaries.  It is distinctive in its appearance, with a long neck and legs, and can run at up to 70 km/h (43 mph), the fastest land speed of any bird.  The ostrich is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest eggs of any living bird. (Extinct elephant birds of Madagascar and the Giant Moa of New Zealand laid larger eggs).

Iberian Lynx

I believe this is an Iberian Lynx.  If not, here are some facts about the Iberian Lynx anyway...  (Lynx pardinus) is a critically endangered species of felid native to the Iberian Peninsula in Southern Europe.  A rabbit specialist, the Iberian lynx is unable to significantly alter its diet and, as a result, its population declined sharply when its main prey was decimated by two diseases in the 20th century.  It was also affected by the loss of scrubland, its major habitat, to human development.  It is now one of the most endangered cat species in the world.  According to the conservation group SOS Lynx, if the Iberian lynx died out, it would be the first feline species to become extinct since prehistoric times.  Captive breeding and reintroduction programs have boosted their numbers.  As of 2013, Andalucia has a population of 309 living in the wild.

I beleive this is a Clouded Sulphur  Butterfly

These were all dancing merrily about the butterfly bushes in front of the Zoo.

This is your basic American Alligator

(alligator mississippiens) is a species in which the males measure 3.4 m (11 ft) to 4.6 m (15 ft) in length, and can weigh 453 kg (1,000 lb.).  Females are smaller measuring around 3 m (9.8 ft).  The American Alligator inhabits freshwater wetlands, such as marshes and cypress swamps from Texas to North Carolina.  Alligators also play important roles in wetland ecosystems through the creation of "alligator holes" which provide wetter or drier habitats for other organisms.

I believe this is also a White Wolf. Adult.

Last but not least....

I couldn't find the species of these butterflies, however I thought this was an interesting capture of them mating.

That sums up my favorite photos from my photo adventure at Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo.  I will be visiting again, as there were more animals, just not all awake, and they also have Wildlife Safari Rides that I would like to go on.  I have some vacation days coming up and will make this trip on one of those days.

I hope you enjoyed these photos, I'll have another post soon of my National Zoo adventure.

Cheers!

JDol

Be a Movie Star Jan-April

Fun times at work 2013

Well, long ago, there used to be monthly birthday celebrations at my office.  It was a whole different crowd of folks at that time, and we were in the old "scary" building.  I call it scary because getting to work at 4-5 am, in that neighborhood was sometimes scary.  We are now a mile away in a beautiful office complex.  Boy i couldn't wait to get outta Taft.  In fact when the new office suite was ready for occupancy I immediately went over there every day even though the rest of the office wasn't moved in yet! It was sooo much nicer, and I love new things, so...  Well, anyway, somewhere along the way the celebrations got lost in the sauce, and I'm often trying to think of things for morale around the office.  Things that everyone can participate in.  Two years ago, maybe three now, I organized an outing to a nearby Laser Tag center and about 18 of us met up on a Saturday to play Laser Tag... that was fun!  I'm not the office manager or admin or anything, I'm a project accountant, reporting to a whole different functional area, but these guys are my work family.... I organize and put together the holiday party every year, and make gifts for everyone, This last year's gifts were personalized mouse pads with company logos and contract specific titling, with their names embroidered on them.  I had designed the artwork for the mouse pad in Photoshop and had them printed up at Discount Mugs then embroidered them.  Here's a pic:

Anyway...... So I asked management at the office for approval to start Pot-Luck Birthday celebrations each month... Approved. They would even reimburse the cake.  All else Pot-Luck... So far so good - this is April and next week is our April Party... 

So I started a tradition that everyone gets to be a movie star for the month.  I did it in January and they all got a kick out of it so it's a tradition now.  So I'm going to blog the before and after pix.  So here are the first 4 months.

January - Liz and Garth

Liz Original

Movie Original Cover

Liz's Movie Cover

Garth original Photo

Original Movie Cover

Garth's Movie Cover

FEBRUARY

Alphonse Original Photo

Original Movie Cover

Alphonse's Movie Cover

MARCH

David & Jamie's Original Photos... I had photo shoots with these 2 guys because i picked the movie out and their characters...

Original Movie Cover

Jamie & David Movie Cover

APRIL

Marlene Original Picture - I had a photo shoot with Marlene, too...  She had fun trying to give me that "hard tough girl" look.  We took a series of them and I got the exact look I wanted.  I used to be a professional photographer doing weddings and portraits, and I remembered what i had loved about it.  I was always able to coax the looks out of my clients...  They always ended up having fun also...they use to remark that they always had dreaded their picture taken but that I made it fun for them... This is the shot I used for the movie cover....

Here is Tomb Raider...

And Here is Marlene...

I think she'll get a kick out of it...

Here we go with Tom's Original Picture - I Grabbed this one from a previous gathering...  He works at the second location, so this will be a total surprise to him.. This photo worked out great for the movie cover...

Tom's Original Movie...

Tom's Movie Cover...

And wouldn't you know April is my birth month, too, so I had to find a movie for myself too!  I searched High and Low, it took a while and then had my own self photo shoot... I am using this original....

For this movie...

Here I am...

So That's it for now, Jan through April... I will make a post for next month - It's Amber's Birthday - I have a movie i think I'm going to use picked out...

Oh yeah - and I put the movie photos on each cake that we make for the parties.  Here are the cakes so far.  Brittany from Weis makes them for me.  I'll never forget the first cake I ordered from there.  I went there because they make some real nice and fancy cakes, and I figured I'd get a WOW! cake, so I placed the order with Brittany, and then when I picked it up, OMG it was so horrible I couldn't believe it.  Do you know those cakes that are sitting in the case pre-done with a Happy Birthday on them?  Well it was worse than those.  With my photos on it.  I was horrified!  I couldn't imagine showing up to our first party with that cake!  I wish I had taken a picture of it, but I didn't.  I talked it over with Brittany who knew I was disappointed, and she offered to redo the top for me. (She didn't make the one I picked up another person did it that day...)  I was able to wait for 1/2 hour while she re-did it and what a difference it was like night and day.  The first cake was so drab it didn't even look like a birthday cake - the Happy birthday writing was the only thing that even hinted at it.  This new design definitely was celebratory... Now mind you the cakes have been improving every month as we go on, we are now into the spray painting and such, but the WOW! effect is there, more than a plain white cake with Happy Birthday written on it, and some sprinkles.  Here are the cakes...

January

February

March

Hope you enjoyed my Movie Covers so Far, and Brittany's cakes.  They are delicous...

Cheers!

JDol