Month: January 2010

Categories
General

Tropical Photos

For a variety of not very interesting reasons, I haven’t been blogging much recently, despite having some decent material. Some of that material is photographs I took recently on a family trip down to Little Cayman. Because you all wanted to see photos of my vacation, right? Just sit back, relax, I’ll get the slide projector and hold you hostage while I show you pictures of cousin Herman packing for the vacation.

Okay, not so much. They are wildlife photos, and I thought they might be of interest because I’ve been getting some very positive feedback on my nature photography. On the other hand, feel free to disregard if these photos aren’t your cup of tea.

Iguana

There are a lot of Iguanas on the island, and they all look deeply prehistoric.

In addition to the reptile life, there were birds: egrets, herons and frigate birds, in particular.
Blue Heron in flight
This is a Great Blue Heron, flying off with an eel in its beak.
The most popular reason for being on Little Cayman is the diving and snorkeling. Conc shells abound, and I found them an interesting object for photographic experiments.
As always, I did a little botanical photography (a long-winded way of saying I took pictures of plants). I really liked the geometrical nature of the agave..
Watching sunrise and sunset from a tropical island is an amazing experience. Trying to photograph it is more frustrating. Especially without a tripod. Nonetheless, I hope some of the tranquility and gentle breeziness comes through in this photo.
The frigate birds, circled and flew in large groups towards dusk, before settling into some trees for the night. These birds are distinctly reminiscent of a pterodactyl, in large part because of the their long wingspan (they have the highest wingspan to weight ratio of any bird).
The iguanas were not limited to the roadways: we also had one which hung out right by the condos. All of the island iguanas seem relatively accustomed to humans, and regard them as a sources of food.
If you look carefully, you can see that the iguana on the road and the condo iguana (whom we nicknamed Iggy), are slightly different species.
Finally, I thought I'd leave you with a photo of me: massacring a coconut.
Categories
General Uncategorized

A New Year

It’s been a while since I’ve written. I got about half way through December and realized I hadn’t blogged yet, and decided to take the month off. But now, it’s a new year, and that brings with it all sorts of changes.

For starters, Eva and I  adopted three new cats yesterday. A sibling pair of black cats with white markings, and one brown/gray tabby male. All are about two years old, and have lived together since kittenhood. The names they came with are Diana (f)  and Dancer (m) for the sibling pair, and Classy for the male tabby. Diana, at least, is likely to undergo a name change, since we just had a cat named Diana. To date, Diana is the only one who is actively out and visiting with us, while Classy is hanging out under the couch. For the moment, we aren’t quite sure where Dancer is. (As I type, Diana has become Eva’s laptop).

No photos as of yet because I don’t want to freak them out (any more than they already are), but I assure you, there will be photos.

In far less momentous news, I’ve started the new year by working out each day. The holidays brought me a Wii Fit, and while I’m not fit yet, I’m working on it. As weird as it seems to have a video game leading me through Yoga or fitness training, it does seem to work pretty well for me. On the other hand, we’re only 4 days in.

Any other news will have to wait, because someone wants attention. And what’s the point of having cats if you don’t drop everything to attend to their every whim.