When in doubt, smile.

[click here] - and vote for image 15 #14 I picked something a little out of the box for this contest .. we’ll see how it does.

Aye, this is also part o’ the Mckee garden .. a ‘ery neat bamboo hut near the back o’ the garden. Ye’ll ne’er get me buried booty!

Arrr, (i was lookin’ up through the center, such a neat skylight) Gar.

- Translated for Talk Like a Pirate Day -

I swear this post was here yesterday

This is the back of the Hall of Giants at the Mckee Garden. Can you imagine the view from up there over a tropical botanical garden?

Here’s another shot from our mini downtown shoot.

Yesterday realized I had a real possibility of posting a picture every day this week .. so I’ve decided to give it a shot.

to take your dogs out 2 hours earlier then they usually get up. I hope you get to see something like this ..

Some strange reason Daisy decided she had to pee at 6:30 am this morning. I finally gave in when she kept crying after 10 minutes of ssssshhhhhing. But I’m glad she did, because I got to see this full moon out over our back yard. Of course the photo doesn’t do it justice, but at least I have something to recall it.

Here’s one of my new favorite pictures of Ella .. taken during my last visit south. 

I could possibly win a trip to the Grand Tetons to work one on one with a nature photographer!

Vote for my photo!vote

Thank you!!!

The birthday boy!

Rhino

Very loud gibbon 

Neat looking bird who loved my camera 

A kookaburra, but he wouldn’t laugh for me 

Anteater, with paws that look like pandas :) 

Pretty jaguar 

Pygmy Marmoset that was so hard to take pictures of because of the glass glare 

Playful otter saying hi to Chelsi and Ethan

Capybara - worlds largest rodent, who loves to hang out in water. He’s so cute

The girls should have their discs this afternoon with more images to share .. if you want to see more animals [click here]

Keri’s birthday was a blast! See the pictures [here]

Its been raining for days around here, today was the first day all week that the afternoon sunshine could actually dry up the grass. The dogs are very thankful for that. Last night the frogs were louder then they had been in months (even louder then [this night]), I ended up sleeping in the guest room, convinced the sliding glass door was letting more frog noise in. I think having the TV on in the guest room is what helped me tune out the frog song. We also have a ton of baby dragonflies around our backyard. Our grass grows so fast right now, there are a ton of little perches for the guys to hang out on. 

So .. what’s new here? Well .. yesterday I signed up for Image X. A photography workshop in New Orleans this October. I’m sooooo excited you have no idea. I’ve signed up for sessions with 2 photographers I know I have alot to learn from. I can’t wait. As for the photo business in general. I’m getting alot of emails and phone calls from interested people, I have a few sessions scheduled coming up, things seem to be growing. Its tough to know how things would really be in a good economy, since portraits are considered a luxury item.  

And for a little health update .. its now been 4 months since my swollen glands first really started bothering me. 3 months since one Dr. diagnosed me with a ‘throat infection’ and gave me antibiotics that did nothing. 6 weeks since I switched my allergy medicine and was tested for various auto immune diseases. Yesterday I got those results back, and everything came back fine, so that’s good. That Dr. said that she still believes my problem is allergy related, but because I’ve tried 2 different oral meds and nose spray, and nothing has helped, she suggested I see an ENT just to be sure. So I called my ENT who was going to do my surgery last year and they happened to have an opening this morning. After checking out all my head openings and feeling all the glands and nodes in my throat, he decides I should have a CAT scan on my throat. He said my glands or nodes on the left side of my throat were larger then the right, and there aren’t any signs of infection (which I swear my ears were infected, they’ve been hurting for days). So after that exam, I had blood drawn because they’ll inject me with dye for the scan next week, and they want to make sure I wont have a problem with that. Sounds like a blast huh? He didn’t say what he’s looking for .. I’m pretty sure he’s just covering all the bases. Anyways, I should get the results from the CAT on the 30th.