Category Archives: Camera Critters

Camera Critters – Oklahoma Aquarium

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Logan and the Sea Turtle wave at each other. My employer helped pay for this exhibit.

Once a month during Heather’s Book Group meetings, Logan and I have “Boys Night Out.” Recently we checked out the Oklahoma Aquarium in the Tulsa suburb of Jenks. They recently opened up the Polynesian Reef Exhibit.

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It’s beautiful. The exhibit looks better than I photographed it.

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I love this colorful Red Spined Starfish. 

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And this turtle. 

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The African Cichlids have been there a while. I love the colors and the random patterns.

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If you are an Oklahoma fisherman, these striped bass are the ultimate in Oklahoma. They are huge.

We had a good time. Check the Aquarium’s Website for information to plan your visit. They are open late on Tuesdays which makes it very handy for Boys Night Out!

I am linking this post to Camera Critters and Our World Tuesday

Camera Critters – Sally

SuperPizzaBoy is turning into quite the rider. Here he is with Sally.

Therapeutic Riding Update

He is riding weekly at All Star Therapy in Ramona and they have him riding independently more and more. He is going from being a passenger on the horse to actively controlling and working with the animal. Sally, the name of the horse, takes a lot of working with. She gets irritated by the other horses and likes to bite them so SPB has to take charge and prevent her from doing that. 

It is really fun watching him ride these days.

Camera Critters

October Osage County – Camera Critters

Lets check out what is happening at the Animal Barn at Woolaroc. Frank Phillips‘ (founder of Phillips Petroleum Company) old ranch in Osage County about an hour north of Tulsa.

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Woolaroc has quite a few critters. They can be as fun as the art in the museum and grounds.

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Something about zebras? They are so graphic. That is actually a better quality in zebras than it is in people.Don’t you think?

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I love the animal barn at Woolaroc (Are there barns that are not animal barns). I don’t trust this pair of jokers.

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This little guy just wants back in with his mama. She is fine where he is. I know lots of human moms like that also. Love their kids

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Something about goats is comical.

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My favorite was this calf. It was major cute.

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It was kind of shy and flirting with me.

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Have you ever seen a cuter redhead?

Camera Critters

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Camera Critters – Tulsa State Fair

I went to the Tulsa State Fair Friday.

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I don’t go for the food, the rides, or the cheesy merchandise.

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I go because I like looking at the critters, especially the cows, and horses and the goats are interesting also.

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Many of the animals were raised by young people. I think that it is great. Anything that takes kids away from their electronics is A-OK with me!

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I don’t know a thing about these animals. I can generally tell a horse from a cow but don’t bet on it. These though are Belgian Blues. I think they are beautiful. According to wikipedia they are “double muscled” which gives them a muscular appearance but also means that they are very good at converting grass to lean beef. They are more pink in the photograph than what they are live. They have a beautiful blue color to them.

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My sister Ellen posted in her blog the other day that she took a photography class and learned that when photographing critters the eyes should be the focal point. It was a revelation for me. There is a real difference  in the “emotion” of the photographs where the eyes are the focal point and where you can’t see them. That Ellen, she is one smart cookie.

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Herefords or “white faces” are another of my favorites. They have fallen out of favor I think because of the trend toward leaner beef. I think they are beautiful. Sorry, I couldn’t get one to look at me. I don’t blame them.

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The goats are something else. Cows pretty much ignore everybody, the goats are checking everybody out.

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Would you buy a used car from this goat? I wouldn’t.

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The goats and cows both were being bathed and trimmed by their owners.

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I came upon some young people showing off their horses. The tension level was high during the judging.

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The horses and the handlers both were dressed to the nines.

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The animals are beautiful, you can tell the young people and their parents had worked hard to get to this show.

 If you live close to Tulsa the fair runs through October 7.

Camera Critters

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Camera Critters – Deer in the Park

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During our recent vacation to Seattle we rented a car one day to go check out Mount Rainier National Park. The Park is a lot more than a big hill I’ll tell you. We went hiking down a nature trail near the Paradise Area to look at a glacier. On our way back we heard some noises like a hard breathing sound and something big moving through the woods.

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We saw a deer who had stopped an was looking around with their big ole ears.

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It looked downhill.

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And to the left,

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and right,

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And then right at us. We didn’t move and neither did the deer. We finally moved on a few dozen yards and happened on what looked like a smaller version of the first one. I’m certainly no expert on deer but I think it is a black tail deer. By all means if I’m wrong let me know.

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It didn’t seem too afraid of us either. The first deer started acting a little agitated, trotting back and forth. We could hear it but couldn’t see it, so we moved on.

Camera Critters

The Bison of Jackson Hole

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We saw lots of bison during our recent trip to the Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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These animals are big.  They didn’t seem much bothered by all the people around but I gave them a wide berth. I have a feeling that if they decided to chase you it could get serious very quickly.

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There is something about watching bison that is pretty cool. It is great to see them in the wild.

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This trip we didn’t get close to the Tetons except for a brief restroom stop at the park visitor center in Moose. Away from the crowds there is more room and quieter. The park headquarters is right under the flight path for the Jackson airport. A steady stream of corporate jets was quite irritating. It’s like the 1% were piling into the valley for a last stand or something.

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Out on Antelope Flats where the bison were things were much more primitive. If you want to call digital cameras with zoom lenses primitive.

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I just couldn’t get enough of these guys.

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They have such small eyes for such large animals. I guess they see what they need to.

Camera Critters

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Camera Critters – Jo the Llama

Meet Jo the guard llama.

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We have friends who have sheep and other critters and the local coyote or wild dogs are kind of hard on them so they brought Jo in protect them.

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Here she is striking a pose. Protective and Stylish you could say. That’s one of the momma sheep next to her.

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Ears up is good.

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Ears back is annoyed.

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You can tell the lamb is resting easy.

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Momma’s happpy also.

Camera Critters