Wildlife Learning Center Adult Zoology Class – Week 5

Well last week was my last adult zoology class at the Wildlife Learning Center. It was such a great class, and I learned a lot about animals. I am hoping that there will be more in-depth classes, or at least more classes like this in the near future. We saw a few animals, highlighted below:

Coatamundi

Great Horned Owl

California Desert Tortoise

California Desert Tortoise foot (isn't it cute?)

Wildlife Learning Center Adult Zoology Class - Week 4

This is week 4 of the 5-week class...so it was our second to last one. Every class has been awesome and has exceeded my expectations. However, week 4 might as well have been titled "Animals Kristina would love to have". A macaw, a rabbit, a kinkajou, bonus time with the sloth, and....a hedgehog. Yes, I would love to own a hedgehog, but unfortunately they are also illegal to own as a pet in California. Of course we saw lots of animals, but I will highlight just a few here.

Macaw

Prairie Dog

Rex rabbit

African Pygmy Hedgehog

Cute little hedgehog face

Kinkajou peeking through the hole

Kinkajou

And... we got bonus time with Lola the two-toed sloth! So of course I am showing you more pictures that I took of her:

I have to thank the Wildlife Learning Center for offering this amazing class. Tomorrow is the last of the series, and I am so very sad that it is ending.

Thank you for stopping by!

Wildlife Learning Center Adult Zoology Week 3

Week 3 of the Adult Zoology class at the Wildlife Learning Center exhibited a variety of animals, and a lot of the class about adaptation was spent in the reptile room. We saw a lot of neat animals, but I am highlighting just a few here.

We started off by seeing how the Fennec fox, native to Africa, adapted to the harsh temperatures of the continent by having huge ears (to release heat) and small paws (a smaller surface area to take up heat as it travels).

Our class then got to see some tricks from Merlin the Macaw. This bird's personality was as colorful as his beautiful feathers -- evident as he showed us his tricks to get treats.

Then we headed into the reptile room. Admittedly, I was a bit apprehensive about this portion of the evening, but we met some pretty cool reptiles, like this Skink:

And I think one of the cutest little geckos I met was this Eyelash Gecko-- named so because the ridges above his eyes look like, you guessed it, eyelashes:

This adorable little red-Eyed Tree Frog was our amphibian of the evening.

The highlight of the evening was seeing this little guy...Can you guess what he is?

When he unrolled himself and peeked his little head out, we saw this:

He turned out to be a Three banded Armadillo!

I have never seen an armadillo in person, so meeting this guy was definitely a treat.

Thank you to the Wildlife learning Center for this awesome five week class! Check out my experience with the first two weeks of class here.

And thank you as always for stopping by!

Wildlife Learning Center Pictures- Week 2

Last Tuesday night's adult zoologyclass at the Wildlife Learning Center was my favorite so far. I know that I only have two to choose from, and the sugar glider from last week's class was pretty awesome, but this week held porcupines and Lola the two-toed sloth, among other awesome animals. I took lots of pictures and we saw lots of animals, but I am going to highlight four here.

We visited with the -- leashed -- Serval to start the class off. No petting this gal. Every breeze and rain drop were picked up by her large ears, and she was intently looking for the source of unfamiliar sounds. Our instructor, Marissa, gave her kitty food to get her to face in our direction.

Next were the porcupines. Every time I visit the Wildlife Learning Center, I have the best time watching these little guys waddle around, climb their tree stumps and cage, and bump into each other. We were also treated to the juvenile porcupine's special way of begging--- by throwing punches into the air.

I had been dying to meet Lola the two toed sloth for quite some time. She is usually in her little warm habitat to mimic her natural environment, and just the average visitor isn't able to get into the house. However, our class got to squeeze into her little -- and very warm-- house.

In order for us to be able to pet her, she had to be distracted with a special treat of sweet potatoes.

Exerting all of that energy was so very taxing for this little sloth, so after eating and getting her photos taken, she was very tired and gave us a huge yawn:

And then she curled up for some much needed sleep (hey, life is tough when you're a sloth):

Again, while we sat in our chairs during the lecture portion of the class, there was something a crate really itching to get out. It turned out to be this Arctic fox, which came to the WLC because it was in a fur house and did not have fur up to their standard.

Thankfully for us, and even more thankfully for the fox.

Again, I have to say thank you to the Wildlife Learning Center for offering such a great opportunity! I look forward to this evening's class!

And thank you for stopping by!

Pictures at the Wildlife Learning Center

I have always loved animals, and love visiting the Wildlife Learning Center. Imagine my excitement when I found out that they were offering an interactive adult zoology class for five weeks! Last week was my first class, and of course I took some photos to share with you all. We started learning about the different animal classifications, starting with insects such as the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach:

This Indian Stick insect:

And this scorpion (I did not touch this little guy):

We moved onto learning about amphibians by looking at this African Bullfrog:

And then moved onto learning about reptiles like this baby American Alligator:

We then learned that birds are closely related to the reptile family, and saw this blind screech owl that was rescued:

The softest little animal that was brought out for us to learn about was the Sugar Glider, a marsupial (there were actually four rolled up in a blanket, I was able to catch this one as he got out -- yes it had to be held so that it wouldn't glide away):

And out night ended with a showing of this grey fox:

I look forward to the next month of classes. Thank you to the Wildlife learning Center for offering this type of outreach to adults, and for doing great work!

And thank you, as always, for stopping by!

Digital Garden

 

A couple of months ago I had a small surgery, and haven't exactly been mobile since. I knew that I had to have this particular ailment fixed, and that it would take a bit to heal, and it would be a while before I would be able to get out and take photos.

One of the things on my list of many preparations in the weeks before, was to take a morning trip with my camera to Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge. I am so glad I did, because months later, as I scroll through my library of photos (very few from June, none from July) I get to see a digital garden. The above image was taken on that day with my Tamron 90mm macro lens at ISO 400, f/4, 1/1000.

I converted this image from color to black and white because I really like the composition and the lines, and wanted to focus on those things about the image.

Thanks for stopping by!

All of the Pretty Fishes

Over the past few months, I have fallen in love with aquarium photography. It's a win-win for me...I don't have to actually go into the ocean (I'm just a bit scared of sharks), and I can stay in front of my subject for hours, not having to worry about breathing in the water. As long as the exhibit isn't crowded, I'm in luck.My aquarium photography started with a visit early last year to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long beach, CA. They dedicated an evening in the aquarium to me and about 100 other photographers. This was a wonderful thing for the aquarium to do for us. My favorite photo from that evening is this detail of a Ragged Lion fish:

After a hiatus from aquariums, I was able to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium just last month. I rediscovered my love of photographing aquariums, and fell in love with jellyfish as subjects:

Last week I had the opportunity to visit La Jolla, and visited the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Birch Aquarium. This is a wonderful research and education aquarium, and exhibited my new favorite subjects:

If you get a chance, please check out my Flickr collection of aquarium photography. I'm having so much fun with this and love seeing how I am progressing.

Thank you as always for stopping by!

Birdies

I had no idea that the Los Angeles Arboretum had peacocks, peahens, and a gaggle of other birds cruising around the property; I had never been there before last week. I also did not realize that peacocks and peahens flew. Those are big birds!

While my beloved distracted a peacock after much debate about whether they attack, I got close to the bird's tail (longer than Kate Middleton's train, might I add) with my Tamron 90 mm:

Neither of us were attacked, I got my photo while a bird that can only be left over from the Jurassic period eyed me up and down, calling to his buddies to keep me in check.

Thanks for stopping by!

A glimpse of Spring

I know, while the rest of the country freezes, Southern California has nothing to complain about. This past week has bee beyond gorgeous, and has me looking forward to spring and taking bee-yoo-tee-ful photos like this one:

Not to toot my own horn, but when I look at this image it just shouts "Spring is here!!" and gives me a warm tingly feeling all over.

This was taken in March of 2009, with a Canon rebel XTi and Tamron 90mm lens at Descanso Gardens, which is my favorite place here in Southern California.

Thank you for stopping by.

Things are looking up

For Christmas, my beloved Mr. Wonderful presented me with two fantastic Peter Lik photo books, one a Limited Edition photo book of his work in Las Vegas and beyond, as well as a book dedicated solely to Vegas. I always stop into Lik’s galleries in Vegas and Hawaii (those are the places I tend to travel most) to see some awe-inspiring landscape images, and are they ever. The Vegas galleries are really inspiring after a few cocktails. While looking through these awesome images, I was struck by the photos of Palm trees in Vegas. Being a Southern California resident who loves to visit Sin City, I must say I rarely look up to enjoy the beauty of the luscious palms. I don’t think I do that at home either.

Anyhow, while visiting the San Fernando Mission last week, I did precisely that: looked up. It’s amazing what you see up there:

I liked the idea of this solitary palm and bright blue sky. I just did a little bit of editing in Lightroom 3.

I loved the juxtaposition of the building and the palm tree. The color contrasts really grabbed me.

This might be my favorite palm tree image of the day. I know that one of the photographic “rules” is to have odd quantities of objects in photos, but I really liked how the breaking of this rule worked out for this pair. The bright blue sky and the greens just grabbed my attention.

Of course there are other trees in Southern California. One of my out of town visitors pointed this out:

This looks to be a Ceiba tree. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Of course I had to get a macro shot of those thorns:

I had an image previous to this one that was tighter on the tree, but the thorn was just too...shocking.

Thank you Mr. Wonderful for inspiring me with my Christmas gifts.

And thank you as always for stopping by!

Up where the air is light

On a work trip to the East Coast and flew to Washington, D.C. To see the sights since I have never been there. It seems that I got here before my luggage did.

I love sitting right next to the window because as a geographer, I can see the changing patterns of the land below me. As a photographer, I can document the ways the physical geography changes.

I made and edited this image in my iPhone somewhere over Missouri (I think).

Thanks for stopping by...if you see my luggage, tell it to do the same.

Princess Cereus

Ah, the Night-Blooming Cereus, a magical flower. She blooms for just one night in July or August, starting to open her petals to the world just after the sun sets. Getting larger and spreading her petals further, she gives off a beautiful fragrance to lure pollinators for the duration of her short life. She reaches her apex of beauty, and then daylight breaks. Princess Cereus closes her petals to the world as the sun rises, and then dies.

Not even the most handsome, strong prince can save her. But luckily my eye caught her.

Of the macro flower photos that I have taken, this is one of my favorite flower photo shoots, and here is one of my favorite images from the evening:

Since the Cereus only opens for one night (key word here), I got to try my hand with the strobes. It was now or never, as Elvis sings.

Using two Canon Speedlite 580 EX II's, one slave was bounced off of a white diffuser, while the master strobe was held above the flower through a diffuser by an innocent bystander (whatever family member I could dupe). of course I used the Canon 5D mark 2 in case there were any low light issues.

My dad also partook in the photographing of the flower, so we switched off as flash holder. In other words, I got a taste of my own medicine.

This was a fun and challenging macro shoot, since I usually do my macro photography during the golden hour, or inside where I can control the flower of choice.

I hope you enjoy this beautiful flower, and I hope she blooms again next year!

Thanks for stopping by.

Leave as is please...

Humans just cannot seem to leave well enough alone. An example of this is Oat Mountain, a mountain in the Santa Monica Mountain range. It is owned by the gas company, and the peak is home to telecommunications, so it has been spoiled.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Oat+Mountain+Mtwy,+Chatsworth,+CA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.819956,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Oat+Mountain+Mtwy,+Chatsworth,+Los+Angeles,+California+91311&ll=34.309808,-118.60838&spn=0.031336,0.077162&z=14&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

Aside from that fact, well enough cannot be left alone. I recently went up there for the first time in about 18 months (I have been going there since I was a toddler), and of course brought my camera.

This photo was taken in February 2008, and note the wall on the right of the photo:

I took the following last weekend, July 2010.

Now, Oat Mountain is kind of a hike to the top, and the only way that someone can get to it in a car is by owning a key (which not to many people have access to).

I am sad that someone would travel to the top of the peak, with spray paint, just to deface a wall that very few people will see.

I noticed when looking through my Flickr set of Oat, that the scenery has changed (of course), but so has my eye. In February 2008, I was taking photos like this:

And in July 2010, I took a photo like this:

Now, for those of you that say, "What kind of camera is that? It takes such good pictures!" the first photo was taken with m first SLR, a Canon Rebel XTi. The last photo was taken with my iPhone.

Quite interesting to compare the type of photography and to see my growth as a photographer.

A couple of my favorites from this latest trip up there:

Of course I found the flowers on the otherwise brown mountain.

I'm also experimenting a little bit with some Lightroom presets and customizing:

This aged tone really spoke to me for this photo, because the tree is old, and the surrounding vegetation is brown anyway. I always think warmly of Oat Mountain because it has been part of my life, so this tone reflected my warm fuzzies for it as well.

Thanks for stopping by!