Sunday, November 20, 2005

Monkeying Around

Preview
I've been meaning to post some of my more recent zoo pictures, but just haven't had the time to do the little bit of photoshopping (is that a word?) needed to get them into an entry. Not that I do all that much to them. Basically I do a crop, some kind of framing/feathering, pop on a drop shadow and I'm done. Still it takes time... time I haven't had this week. These pictures are not from my most recent trip (those haven't even made it to the hard drive yet), but from a visit I made a few weeks ago. I hope you enjoy them.

So what have I been doing with my time? Basically trying to reorganize my life. At least it feels that way. So many of my AOL friends have moved their blogs, or gone private, left, come back....It just makes my head spin thinking about it! To keep up I've had to figure out Bloglines,which turned out to be one of the bright spots in all of this mess... Lovin' Bloglines. If any of you aren't using it, I recommend it. If you are having problems. Drop me a line. I wrote 2 tutorials to help out a couple of friends and I saved them so they are easy to pass on. One is on setting up your feeds originally, the other is reading your feed once they are up and running.

The other time suckers have been the AOL Journal message board and let's not forget taking a couple of minutes each day to drop the 'protest' e-mail to the address we have been given.
I'm ready for life to settle back down, but I don't see that happening in the near future

O.K. let's get back to the pics. The little guy you see here is a young Colobus. He is one of the Black and White variety and cute as a button. They are born white. After about a month they start to change colors. I actually have a picture of him from my old camera when he was white. But he was being held by mom, and by the time I cropped and blew it up the quality just wasn't so acceptable. Next time there's a baby, I'll be ready!

I love that my new camera does 'burst mode'. This means I set up a shot and can take several frames very quickly. This gives me the capability of catching this little guy 'flying' thru the air! The picture at the top of the page is one that took me a couple of times to catch just right. He would run up thru the grass jump on that log/support and then push himself off backwards and into the air to again land in the grass. Too Cute!

The picture to the left is of the little guy 'play attacking' one of the older Colobus'. I believe that is his mother, but I'm not sure because ALL of the adults allow him to pretty much get away with murder. He appears to be VERY spoiled!




The picture to the right here is a prime example of how spoiled he is. If you look the 'rope' he is swinging on it is an adult Colobus' tail!!

Want to know a little bit more about Colobus'? Click on this link and go to the African Wildlife Foundation. They have a very nice page about them.

15 comments:

Ari said...

Oh sure, they look cute, but I know enough to not wanna clean up after one. That's for sure!

Great pics!

Kelly said...

great pictures (as always!) thanx for sharin :-)

Laura said...

I imagine things will settle sooner than we think. Then we will have the holidays to stress over.
I love the pictures.
Now to figure out how to post several "throughout" my entries rather than all in the beginning.

Anonymous said...

Love the pics JJ! :) I also love learning new things, and the article about the monkeys was really interesting!
Thanks for sharing!

Jackie
Siennastarr@thatplaceyouallhatesomuch.com :)

hestiahomeschool said...

When I was in college I spent a whole semester watching the colobus troop at the Cincinnati Zoo. They are so beautiful, and such interesting little souls...

Celeste said...

I love these pictures.Yep that is one spoiled baby!

DesLily said...

Hi JJ..
As usual fantastic pics!!
and yep.. you can email me the tutorials also. I went and looked at the bloglines page but i don't want to get into something i can't get out of either lol..i guess this whole mess has made me overly cautious. I've done so much work setting up my journal on blogspot and aol UK and finding everyone and trying to learn Blogspot, and backing my butt up with copies of everything to "Word" that i am exhausted and more confused then ever.
For me all aol needs to do is make the "freeking" ad non animated. I slow my own dialup down when i put the animated pics i make on it.. since that banner went up it takes sooooooooooooo long to just load my journal that i can't stand it. But .. as nice as bloglines is.. I still have this "I wanna go home" sitting in my stomach.. sigh
Yeah, I know.. still crying over spilt milk.
Anyway.. send me the tutorials:(you are sooo smart lol)
DesLily@aol.com.. thanks!!!

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/

http://journals.aol.co.uk/deslily/HereThereEverywhere2/

Anonymous said...

Once again, you leave me smiling and clicking my mouse on the links you reference, drooling and begging for more info on these animals. You may call them Colobus, but I call them Precious!
Judith/jtuwliens

Becky said...

I love zoos. And bloglines totally rocks too! I should have started using that ages ago.

Judith HeartSong said...

I love the little guys and your pics!!!

BosieLadie said...

Love the photos, and glad to see you here in Blogsland!

Jod{i} said...

Now how'd you get the pics of my kids?
I like the digs my friend...everyone seems to be getting more and more comfy, yes?
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!

Jodi

Anonymous said...

I may call upon your help with bloglines. I haven't ventured over there yet, but know I need to do it since I had 999 email alerts clogging up my mailbox on thanksgiving day!

Your camera's special features are awesome! I had no idea that little guy was flying thru the air with the greatest of ease. I thought he was on the tree!

It's amazing how much time it takes to make a nice picture- with drop shadow, a special effect, etc, as you have done above. I just keep getting lazier and lazier with all that, as my time on the computer becomes reduced. The effects you have created here are so professional, that it makes me feel ashamed!

Maryanne

V said...

Your Pics are great!!
V

DEREK said...

i'M GLAD I FOUND YOUR BLOG, THIS MOVE FOR EVERYONE HAS ME LOST MOST OF THE TIME, BUT I'M FINDING EVERYONE.