Un Natural Nature

I have been distracted recently with an injury, but am also trying to expand my photography.  Here are a few composite photos that I have been working on.  I very much enjoy shooting wildlife (with the camera of course) and have been trying to add a bit of creativity to those shots by merging a few of my birds into different environments or “stages.”

This is still a work in progress, but I’ve enjoyed working on these so far.  Thanks to my friend Patrick for the idea, check out his Macro photography here.

An Assortment of Birds

It’s been a little longer than I’d like since my last photo post.  I’ve hurt my ankle and between doctor visits, physical therapy, and working an alternate schedule at work to accommodate for my injury I haven’t had a lot of down time.  I’m back to my normal schedule at least now, and am doing a little less running around.  Here are a few shots of birds I saw at at the Brevard Zoo here in Florida.  I think they are so beautiful!  (Not necessarily the photographs, but the birds!)  I just love watching them.  The more I photograph birds, the more I want to be a wildlife photographer.  That can be a very expensive hobby to have, unfortunately. 

The Bald Eagle

The Red-Tailed Hawk

The Blue and Gold Macaw

Thanks for taking a look!

Meerkat Mob

Aside from the Giraffe exhibit, this is where I spent most of my time at the Brevard Zoo.  I went on my way into the zoo for a while, and again on the way out.  Here is my photoshoot with the Meerkats! 

Meerkats are matriarchal, and the alpha female has control over the group.  Below is Kiki, the head of the mob in this exhibit.  I knew I had to get a portrait of the head, and she was a pleasure to work with.  She does look fierce doesn’t she?

Here you can see her playing a slightly more gentle role… I thought it was sweet but at first as you can see no one really wanted to look at the camera for me. 

That’s better.. sort of.  I love how she has her arm wrapped around the baby.  It definitely shows her softer motherly side.

I caught these (brothers?) guys just hanging out back to back… but again you see my dilemma with not getting them to look at me.  The little one on the left just didn’t’ want to have his photo taken at all.  They remind me of a certain little white furball who lives with me. 

After waiting around a while longer, and a little coaxing from his buddy, I got both of them at least looking in the same direction.  I would have liked to have a better angle, but for these guys I’ll take it!

Aren’t they cute!

Okay, finally I was attempting to organize a family photo (or partial family, there were many more meerkats not in this shot.)  But as you can see, I had my work cut out for me. 

A very long time, and many shots later, this is the best we could do.  Christmas card worthy? 

The Meerkats may look cute and cuddly, but don’t be fooled.  As soon as food is out they are vicious!  We got to see the zoo keeper put food out and they went pretty crazy.  I wouldn’t dare get in their way. 

I very much enjoyed my time watching these guys, and I hope you like the pictures!  If you’d like to read a little about the exhibit or see some additional photos, the zoo has an article about them here:  http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2014/04/meerkat-brevard-zoo.html

Thanks for looking!

Thor

Not long after we entered the Brevard Zoo we ran across this guy.  Thor, a Blue Hyacinth Macaw.  He was whistling and making kissing sounds at first, so I decided to go over and say hello.

Then he pretended to be shy.

That didn’t last long though, pretty soon he was chattering away.  “I’m Thor” Over and over again. 

I’m pretty sure this is a smile, that’s what I’m calling it at least.  He had so much personality!

I could have spent more time with him, as he was very entertaining.  There were so many other things to see though, so we had to finally say goodbye. 

Meet Horatio

I have had the amazing experience over the past few days of seeing and being very close to some amazing animals.  I was going to just make one post summing up everything, but then realized I had way too many photos for that.  So slowly but surely I’m planning to go through all of the photos and feature one or two animals per post.  I’ll start with Horatio, a Great Horned Owl.  He has lived at the zoo from a very young age.  Unfortunately he suffered an injury making it impossible for him to survive in the wild.  He seems to be doing fine in the zoo though!  

I love his eyes!

And now for some profile shots. 

And finally below you can get a better full body idea of what he looks like. 

 

Thanks for taking a look!  I would love any feedback or comments.  As always, feel free to share any images but please link back to my blog. 

A Quick Wildlife Photoshoot

Thanks to my 365 day photo challenge at https://tookapic.com/jenniferfaye I have been taking so many photos recently and I love it!  I took my camera to work with me last night, and went out during my break to see what I could find.

Mostly I captured birds, but this one squirrel was very curious as to what I was doing it seems.

I almost didn’t share this pigeon because I’m not too happy with the composition, but I just love the eye. 

The following photos are all of Purple Martins.  They were everywhere!  And not very shy. 

For all of you Disney fans, this one below is standing on an “I’m Celebrating” button.  I was so focused on the bird that I didn’t even notice until afterwards when I was reviewing the photos.  I wish I had caught it sooner to get a clearer angle. 

And I think this last one might be my favorite.  Not necessarily because of the quality, but the story.  There was a larger bird (a Raven I think) standing on a light post directly above.  He kept dropping crumbs and hitting this guy on the head.  This was his reaction. 

As always, thanks for looking!  Feedback and comments welcome!