Category — photography

Damas y Caballeros,

Here are some pics that I took a little while ago, and I thought that if any of you were in a picture viewing mood today you might like to see them.  Enjoy.

S.M.N.O.

my mom is a firm believer that because zoos and such are a multi-sensory experience, they help make children smarter. so for the last few years, she has been giving my brothers and their families season passes to the as Christmas gifts. this year, she decided to switch things up and purchased memberships to the monterey bay aquarium instead.

Hold on, so what you’re telling me is that if something is a multi-sensory experience that it will make you smarter??  Well I don’t know if you have seen it recently, but pretty much any game on the X-box is multi-sensory and so is ESPN (sportscenter and espn.com).  Now I understand why I am so smart.  Thanks for the useful info.

the memberships also included 2 guest passes… and since spencer and i are zoo lovers and pet fish owners, a trip to the aquarium seemed like a natural thing to do. we decided it would be even more fun to go with my brother and his two kids – also, we didn’t have a car and they did. so that helped.

before i go any farther, let me just say that if you are planning on taking a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old to a zoo, or aquarium, or basically anywhere, make sure their dad brings a stroller. or for the next few hours you will probably end up looking like this:

as for the aquarium itself… it is located right on the coast, which means the view is pretty awesome. and after taking a few architecture classes, i have to say that i was quite impressed with external features of the building. neat stuff. yes, i just said neat.

I have nothing to say that is witty or impressive.  I like to remember what the 16th President of the United States said, ( this was repeated to me many times by my older sister when i was young) “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

now let’s talk about the top 10 things i learned from our aquarium visit:

Uhhh… can I list the top 10 things I learned?  This post seems very one-sided.  I’m gonna spice it up.

#1. it is a little hard to learn things from the exhibits when you are chasing a 1-year old to make sure he doesn’t fall and split his head open on the concrete. so maybe spencer and i should learn all we can at the zoo before we have kids. or just remember to bring the stroller.

#1.  It was actually very easy to learn with little kids running around.  I just let Jana watch them.  I don’t know what her problem was.

#2. 3-year-olds at the aquarium, however, make for very fun photo opportunities. way more exciting than pictures of just me and spencer, right?

#2.  I learned that when there are small children around, Jana forgets that there is a world with adults in it and she focuses all her attention and digital prowess on them.

#3. penguins are adorable. are they nice? because i want a pet penguin.

#3. I learned that Jana wants a pet penguin… along with a baby elephant, baby tiger, baby monkey and baby humans.  It is obvious that she has needs, and they are not being fulfilled.

#4. i also want to have a circular room in my house with a circular fish tank built into the walls where fish swim around in circles. you probably can’t tell how cool it is from the pictures. but it was cool.

#4. I also want to have a circular room in my house but I want it to be a big gerbil wheel with gerbils running on it.  I also want these gerbils to power my house with that little wheel of theirs. Run gerbils run…whopa (friends reference anyone?)

#5. spencer is pretty cute with a petunia picklebottom bag. just saying.

#5. I resent that comment.

#6. also, spencer will make you slide down stair railings because “we do fun things, jana.”

#6. I learned that Jana tricked me when we first started dating into believing that she was super adventurous and spontaneous.

#7. also, spencer is a way better wildlife photographer than i am.

#7. I already knew that, so nothing new there.  It takes a special talent to photograph captive animals.  So I think she should call me a captive-life photographer.

#8. i think these fish could be a really awesome mobile in a kid’s room. just made a little less creepy looking.

#8 I just learned that I didn’t know what a mobile was.  I just had to ask Jana.  I was thinking of skiing moguls and that Jana was not as smart as I thought she was… lucky for us I was the one with the deficit.

#9. the octopus does not like to be flashed. don’t take him to mardi gras.

#9. I would actually like to disagree with that…

#10. the jellyfish exhibit was hands down the coolest part of the aquarium. and getting photos that you really like in front of said jellyfish exhibit takes a lot of time and effort. especially when other aquarium patrons fail to notice the photography magic you are trying to make happen. it was worth the effort though, don’t you think?

#10. Some people are just dumb.  If you can see someone taking a picture (especially with a big camera) don’t stand in the way.

Dumb person: Ohh i love these jelly fish. So pretty.

Jana: Click, click, click.

Dumb person: Oh look Lauretta, when I stand in front of it and block the view it starts to click at me.

Jana: Click, click, click.

Dumb person: “We’re communicating.”

Jana: Click. I hate these people.

and there you have it. the aquarium.

ps. if you can guess which item on spencer’s list made me laugh the hardest, i will be very impressed.

since spencer shared his photos from the tulip festival, i thought i might as well post a few of mine!

[when comparing photographers, please keep in mind that spencer has much more of a national geographic eye than i do. i think his photos would make amazing postcards – don’t you agree?]

for the past few years, i have been wanting to go to the tulip festival at thanksgiving point in utah, so i was pretty excited that i finally managed to make it to one somewhere… even if there was a torrential downpour, and i don’t own waterproof shoes like spencer. in fact, i thought that the contrast between the bright flowers and ominous clouds made the photos that much more intriguing.

i also wanted to throw in a few more that spencer took but didn’t include the other day. isn’t his niece darling?

It was Thursday morning and my little sister walked into the kitchen and resolutely said that she was going to a tulip festival in Woodburn, OR later in the afternoon and asked if Jana and I would like to go with her.  As we looked outside and see the pouring rain we gave her a hesitant yes.  We thought that it was understood that if it were raining at the departure time that we would scrub the trip… apparently that is not what resolute means.  You see, you have to know my little sister… when she gets an idea in her head that sounds good, you might as well get on board or get out of the way because it is going to happen.

When it came time to get in the car, Jana and I mentioned that it was still raining and that it could affect our trip… nope we were still going.  I brought my waterproof hiking boots which brought some scorn from my fellow Tulip Festival commuters.

I asked: will we not be walking around in the mud?

All I got were vague answers and the “Oh no, they will have places for us to walk.”  For a blissful moment I envisioned cement pathways, manicured lawns, littered with snack shacks that you find on Golf Courses.  Then the moment ended and I persisted in my belief that they did not know what they were talking about.

We got in the car and after running to Walmart we took a 35 minute drive to Woodburn, OR.  I was sitting in the back and started to get car sick (yes I am 7 years old) so Jana and I had to do a mid-trip, car still in motion like the ocean position change.

(I am aware that I am about to give very many details that some or many might not care about but as a person who likes to tell stories I feel that it is important that the person listening or reading a story actually experience the story, hence the details.  If you just like cool pictures please skip to the pictures.)

A few windy roads, stop signs and cows later we made it to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival.  It looked like a really great place with games for kids and adults alike.  It had crazy little buggies to ride in to see the Tulips that was pulled by a small tractor.  There were shops and food courts and all kinds of cool looking things for the Tuliper (I just made that up) to experience… too bad the second flood was taking place and the venue was basically abandoned.  Shops were closed, rides were empty, and food was cold.

Most people would have turned back… but not the little sis.  So we got out of the car and braved the elements to make the trip worth it.  Nice thing was, it stopped raining a few min after we got there so we were able to salvage the trip.  Below are some of our pictures of the event.

Like I said earlier, I like to take pictures of anything not posed with or by people.  So that kind of leaves the door open for me when it comes to subject matter.  With that said, I really like plant life: flowers, trees, grass… waterfalls (you probably did not know that waterfalls are considered plant life, but today they are).

Enjoy

S.M.N.O.