I put up a status update on Facebook two days ago that said “renovating my house, my life, and my business.” And that is SO true. The last four days have been of renewing and revival. I guess all the warm weather just really perked me up and made me want to make changes. First I ripped out all my carpet in my front room and half the wood panelling. By friday I hope to have most of it gone to begin installing hardwoods instead. I cleaned out my pantry of all the appliances and pans I NEVER use. First I CAN cook, I just have no time or interest for it so all that REALLY fancy stuff in there was just taking up space and I was tired of cups coming down and falling on my head. OVER IT. Then it was off to the garage to clean out half a million teeny tiny little toys my kids don’t even remember that exist. And this renovation was just the house.

Then, and this may sound crazy to some of you who are not computer geeks, I had to re-organize my hard drives. My archiving is fine. I have drives for Weddings 2002-2004 another for 2005-2007, then special drives for just portraits and then back up drives and so on… but my personal pictures and friends pictures who are not organized in my client drives are all over the place, some on my portable drive since some of these shoots are so small I edit on my laptop, some on my main computer and some on my editing computer, then there is VIDEO. One of those ‘in between jobs’ job. (Basically at this time of year that means in the middle of a project probably but waiting on client feedback or just need a sanity break from 100% wedding. So just making sure all the data on my laptop, portable drives and my other desktop are all neatly moved and placed on the proper drives was my next mission. So back to editing the family video and what a nightmare video is to store not to mention edit. I really don’t know how videographers do it. I dedicated a whole TB to it and I think it is already full and keep in mind this is PERSONAL video. I can only imagine how much space it would take to back up and keep weddings. I use about 60 gigs per wedding but video must be an absolute HOG! I am also working on doing my video of 2011. I do a snapshot video of the year every year. I did get up to Day 26 in my home video of our last year as a family but alas I have about 57 more days to go so it will be a while. I haven’t done baby books in 2 years for the girls so I am WAY behind on that one. On a brighter note I stole and idea from Pintrest and bought two Dr. Suess books “Oh the Places you will Go” and had all the girls teachers write a note about them in them. I will do this with all their teachers until they graduate in which then I will give it to them as a gift.

And lastly my life. Well for the first time since last mother’s day when my sweet husband sent me to the Umstead Hotel and Spa just so I could be by myself and DO NOTHING, I watched 2 movies and went for a walk. For some of you that may sound crazy but I am not kidding, every free moment I am on my laptop either talking with clients, updating my website and marketing, burning and backing up data, printing cd’s, answering a bazillion emails, paying bills, invoicing and killing even MORE spam in my email (that should be my next project to remove myself from all these lists!) and a hundred more tiny activities that eat up every second of my time. And in 10 years no matter how anal I am I don’t think I have ever actually FINISHED a TO DO list. (And as most of my clients and colleagues will tell you, I am darn fast at getting my stuff out because I will work till the wee hours of the morning and have zero social activity (other than a little facebook) till my shoots are done. So to say I never finish a TO DO list means it is full ALL THE TIME no matter how fast I work. SO after that long detour in my writing I can say I actually watched not one but TWO movies! Wow. (Thanks to Daddy for putting the kids to bed both nights or it would have been impossible.) And from now on I am going on a walk at least 3 times a week. It’s a small feat but it is more than I have done in 8 years. (I loved to walk my oldest when she was a baby so we did that probably till she was 2 1/2 years old then it was all over. Oh and I made two doctors appointments for checkups! Now just set a dentist and eye doctor appt and I will be all caught up on the health front! And as if that wasn’t enough on the personal side, my oldest decided she wanted to “help kids” so we did a little research and found this great organization called “my stuff bags”. What I LOVED about them is they put together bags for children just pulled out of a home going into foster care (who may only have the clothes on their backs LITERALLY) and orphanages by giving each child a bag of their own stuff. Most importantly are blankets and stuffed animals but really they need everything from toothbrushes to crayons (but they have to be new). So with marker in hand my oldest wrote a letter for the neighbors (and went door to door sticking them in peoples’ doors, talked to her principal at school who have decided to support her AND we sent out emails to everyone on my distro list or Facebook and neighborhood group page about it. And I am happy to report we have two HUGE bags of blankets, stuff animals, toys, journals and you name it to send. And we haven’t stopped, more it is coming in by the day. My littlest one wanted to get involved too so she put flyers in all the cubbies at her preschool. The girls are so excited to see all this stuff going to help kids who as my littlest one explained to one of the teachers “they don’t have anything! Not even a blankie or stuffed animal!” (4 years old) I just love their little hearts.

And lastly the business… I have been reading all kinds of reports, financial, internet marketing, website mastering so to speak and basically trying to figure out how to build a better mouse trap. That and making a conscious decision to cut back a little so I can have more family time rather than how it is today where as soon as Daddy comes home or the kids go to school strait to work. So I will only be doing 2 weddings a month this year instead of 3-4 in past years. But the great news is I have some amazing photographers that LOVE shooting weddings and do an awesome job! This will give them even more opportunity to do what they love and wow our clients!

So with my pantry torn apart, half my floor barren down to plywood, my pantry in a crazy misshaped shape, half the garage bagged up, one wedding album to edit, one to design and a rehearsal dinner invite to make a few final touches, I will start tomorrow another day of renovation with MORE TO COME!

Funny as tired as I am I feel GREAT!!! Don’ t you just love it when you get so much done? That and I ALWAYS get inspired when I get a new project whether it be in weddings, home improvement projects or this great little charity we decided to get involved.

Off to bed for this photographer! Good night all…

10 Ways to Spot a FauxtographerTraci TurchinPublished on: June 16, 2011Fauxtographer n. — That overpaid guy with a camera who produced a product that looks like it came from a disposable camera someone gave to the flower girl.Here are 10 tips to avoiding that guy:The price is dramatically less than other photographers you’ve seen. If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. Professional cameras, lenses and editing software add up quickly, and a self-employed professional photographer also pays around 40 percent in income taxes.There’s little to no file backup system. What’s worse than bad wedding photos? No wedding photos. If the photographer doesn’t sound 100 percent dedicated to keeping your photos safe, keep looking.The fauxtographer doesn’t have business insurance. A professional photographer has insurance to cover you or your venue if something goes wrong.There’s no contract. A contract protects both you and your photographer, and you can expect a real photographer to have a detailed contract, covering everything from when the balance is due to how soon you should expect your wedding photos after the big day.She only has one camera. Bad things happen at weddings. A photographer can trip. A flower girl can mistake a lens for a toy. Every photographer experiences an equipment mishap at least once in her career, so if it happens at your wedding, you want to be sure she can carry on as though nothing happened.A fauxtographer doesn’t have any lenses that are f/2.8 or “faster.” This part is a bit technical, but ask the photographer to list a few of their lenses. Lenses are described in ways like 85mm f/1.4 or 70-200 f/2.8. If you hear a lot of f/5.8 or f/4, she is likely photographing your wedding with hobby quality lenses, which can be bad. Indoor receptions and ceremonies are incredibly demanding on camera equipment, and you’ll want your photographer to use the very best.You don’t see a complete wedding album. It’s easy for a fauxtographer to take the best pictures from several different weddings and put together a beautiful album. Be sure you’re able to see a whole wedding from start to finish.Fauxtographers will give you every picture they snap. A professional takes pride in his work, and not every click of the shutter will result in a worthy image. Be wary of a photographer that doesn’t take pride in her work and reputation enough to toss the bad shots.He hasn’t ever been to a workshop or photography conference. Professional photographers invest in attending workshops and conferences to keep their skills and business practices up to date.She uses the built in flash on her camera. Fauxtographers show their true colors when the scene gets dark. A professional photographer uses an external flash or two to control the light, often directing her flash at a ceiling or wall to create a softer look. Fauxtographers use the built-in flash on their camera, and can’t capture the ambiance of your reception.

via 10 Ways to Spot a Fauxtographer | Colorado Brides.

Well, as you can see it has been a while.  I have been slammed but honestly looking back at this hour I can’t remember everything I have been doing!  I can tell you yesterday I did headshots for one of my favorite charities, Step Up Ministries.  They do fantastic work that really makes a difference and CHANGES peoples lives.  It doesn’t get much more significant than that in this life.  I think I have been shooting for them for 5 years now?  Time just flies.  But I still remember shooting my first graduation with them.  I knew very little at the time about what they did but a friend had passed my name along as someone who might be willing to help them.  I think I cried through almost the whole graduation as each candidate got up and talked about their life story and how Step Up had changed it.  It was one of the most moving experiences in my life and I was HOOKED.  I in now way compare to the life partners and staff that work with these individuals tirelessly to help them change their lives. They learn how to budget, how to get and keep a job, buy a house, get a car, take good care of their children and all the while with tears, hugs but also in your face no excuses support.  And the kids go to classes too.  They get help with homework and are also taught the importance of responsibility, respect and work ethic.  It’s an amazing program and I am honored to have served them in this small way.  ANYWAY… After looking at their website recently I noticed the Board Members didn’t have pictures and it always nice to see those faces and just gives it a more professional look so I offered to do it for them.  We have only done round one.  Funny, I could tell they had grown over the course of 5 years but when I found out they now had about 50 on staff I couldn’t believe it.  They TRULY have shown they can make things happen and the community has supported them so they can do even more.  I am so glad they have had such success.  So I shot 12 of the 50 or so yesterday and  will continue weekly for 3 more rounds till we are done.

Then I had to design a rehearsal dinner invitation which I LOVE…  It makes me so happy when people are so please with their pictures they want to show them off.  I think it is fabulous!  Again, I hate to put anything out there until the client gets to show it off first.  But I will try to remember to post later.

A couple of contacts from brides with pricing requests and a baby shoot.  (AND I NEED MY BABY FIX!) It’s been just a little too long so bring me those babies!  I need baby hugs!  Scheduling my trip to Austin for my St. Patrick’s Day wedding.  That one should be fun.  Right smack dad in the middle of SXSW craziness! Doubt I will see any of the action but we’ll see.  I might just have to go shoot downtown Austin Friday night.  That would be a blast I am sure.  And lastly just a thousand little things like paying company bills, paying lovely property taxes, updating quickbooks, filing sales and use taxes, mailing out orders, oh and ordering orders and so on and so on…

For now the only thing I have to show is one shot, that I ran outside to get because I saw it as I was getting my child’s backpack out of the car.  I just love civil twilight.  This was the tale end the moon was already rising with the two stars (which if I remember my astronomy correctly are actually planets) glowing above the moon.  It’ s no Van Gogh but I liked it.   I hope you do too.  Hopefully my next post won’t be quite so far away and I can remember more of what I did! ha!

And lastly I just decided since it is pajama day at my child’s school tomorrow, we are ALL going to join in and wear our pajamas!  So if you see me in car pool with my pajama’s on then you know it was pre-meditated!

I talked about this sweet couple in my last blog post with their wedding slideshow. Here are some images that highlight their big day. These make this wedding photographer smile! By the way, my favorite shot is me with either my future employee or future competition!

My future employee or competitor?? Not sure which but he was ON IT all night!

(Thanks Liz who took many of the shots you see below!)
Enjoy!

What an adorable couple.  They make such a good match for each other.  Heather with her vivacious personality and Mark with his calming stability seem ideally suited for each other.  You can just see the whole world disappear when they look into each others eyes.  The day was gorgeous and you can’t ask for better weather in February.  Spring has even taken root a little early with the daffodils in bloom by the church.  I loved how this couple was so laid back just enjoying the day as it unfolded. Heather with her gift to brighten any room and any person she came into contact with and Mark with his steel blue eyes that put her at peace whenever she looked at him.  They were the perfect bride and groom.  And who can beat a reception at Carolina Country Club.  It always looks gorgeous. They rocked to a fun band and really got a chance to spend some time with all the friends and family who came to be a part of this next big step in their lives.  The maid of honor and the groom’s best friend gave great toasts that had us all tickled.  And finally the end where the bride and groom exited to a traditional bird seed exit and off to their next adventure as man and wife.  I loved this wedding and thank you so much for letting me be a part of it. Congratulations Mark and Heather! It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding!

Click the picture below to view a slideshow of the highlights of the day.  Pause the media player down at the bottom right before viewing.

To see the full gallery of images go to the YOUR PHOTOS section of the website and look for the Starritt Price Wedding. They will be posted no later than Saturday, February 18th by 8pm but may be up as early as Friday night!  : ) Thanks!

Have you ever wondered why we cut off the top of the head sometimes?  Why the subject is off center rather than in the middle.  You don’t notice these things, you just see an image and thing WOW that’s beautiful.  But when you start looking at your own image you start to change it and want it centered or maybe put the head back onto the top etc.  Read this ariticle and it may shed some light on the subject and keep you from changing the art you received into a snapshot.

There are many other rules of composition we use such as S curves, C curves, leading lines etc. But this is the most basic and most widely used of all the Rules of Composition.  Thanks for Photography Talk for the article.

The Key to Pleasing Compositions.

Rule of Thirds

The hardest part about shooting bridal portraits is waiting till the day after the wedding to post them!  I get so excited as does the bride and you just want to share them with the world but obviously we don’t want the groom and guests to see the dress before the big day.

We got somewhat lucky as this was shot at the end of January and although it was a tad cold it could have been MUCH colder.  But even with a slight chill that didn’t take any of the smile off this bride’s face.   Heather has one of those charming abilities to light up any room.  Her smile and laugh are infectious and I can see how this teacher is a bee charmer to all of her students.  I only wish my babies could have her for their teacher.

She has this gorgeous long hair that holds curl perfectly and the dainty flower as dressing on her wedding gown are the perfect touch to her vivacious personality.  Here are some of her favorites and some of mine!

Congrats Heather and Mark!  You have a beautiful bride here INSIDE AND OUT!!!  : )

Ah, back from paradise and back to reality. I will save you from the boring details of me unpacking, grocery shopping, running thousands of errands, opening all the mail etc that I had to do to catch up yesterday.

But it is back to work right away with a wedding on Saturday.  Thank goodness for this photographer I love my job and am excited to get right back in the fro.  After my coffee and checking email it is into my office to re-pack all my equipment. I had to pull every thing out and only bring what I really needed on my trip.  So I spent an hour making sure I had everything I needed to get just the right shot.  I get a lot of questions from photographers starting out asking what equipment do they need for a wedding.  Some is very specific and is a MUST have if you are going to shoot weddings.  What a lot of people don’t know is that you shouldn’t use the same equipment for every type of photography although some do overlap.  But there are certain items that are critical to capturing the special moments that make up the bride’s perfect wedding day.  The two most important lenses are the 24-70mm 2.8 and 70-200mm 2.8 Nikkor lenses.  These are the most important for several reasons.  The first most important reason is when you have to shoot in a dark church and they don’t let you use flash you must have a lens that can shoot under dark conditions.  The 2.8 in the description above is what enables you to do that… So those lovely lenses that came with that camera you bought in a box probably won’t cut it.   Also, most semi pro cameras don’t have high enough ISO settings to shoot under dark conditions.  Let’s put it this way, if you spent less than $2500 on your camera is it not a real pro camera.  You may get lucky and have a church with a LOT of windows that will make it possible to shoot with a lesser camera or lens but not if the window is stained glass windows and not if it ends up being a cloudy day either.

To tell if your lens is a 2.8 or not is by looking around the ring on the front around the glass.   It may also be found on the top when you look down at it holding it on your camera body.  If it says 3.5-5.6  or something like that it is not the lens you need.  It needs to start with the 2.8-something or just 2.8.   These lenses are very expensive and range from $1,000 to $1,500 each.  For a new person starting out you can rent them if you have credit. But it would be irresponsible to shoot in a church without them.  I say this because at weddings I continually get people coming up to me telling me their horror stories about their photographer who was probably new and didn’t know what they were doing.  If you are starting out remember weddings are a HUGE responsibility and one of the harder of the types of photography to shoot.  So at least volunteer to assist a known photographer to learn before you start shooting on your own.  Your clients deserve it.  The short lens is for the getting ready shots, shots of couples or anything close up and the long lens is a must have to get a close up look at the bride and groom during the ceremony.  Most churches have very specific rules about not interrupting the ceremony and you want to obey these rules or you may be black listed from the church or worse you will ruin it for the future and they will make it a policy of no photography during the ceremony because they have had too many problems with photographers.  Ok enough on that!  If you at least have those two you will be ok.  Now for the FUN lenses! These are the ones that make your style your style.  This gives your images a creative look in different situations.  You have several options for portrait lenses the 50mm 1.4, 85 1.4, 80 1.8 and probably more.  This just gives your images that dreamy look with the blurry background.  It is really only good for one person at a time because literally you focus on the eye and it will be in focus but even the nose will be just a bit blurry so if two people then one of them will be slightly out of focus. Then a good macro for the details shots. These are tough lenses to learn to shoot with because they literally focus on the head of a pin and can be frustrating for beginners but I love them. I have two, one short and one long.  And lastly a fish eye or wide angle that are good for the dancing shots and make the dance floor come alive. They can capture everything from the left side of your body almost all the way around to the right side of your body.  There are more I can tell you about but you get the idea.

So after about an hour of putting everything in its perfect place then have to put my cards on around my waist.  I only shoot in 2 gig cards because a card can fail and you don’t want your whole wedding sitting on one card. And SHOOT IN RAW!  Jpg is a terrible format and if you end up in a super dark church that even you 2.8 can’t handle then you need to have a little flexibly to lighten your images and jpg gives you VERY little flexibility.  Then lastly I put on my classic black pants and jacket.  You want to meld into the background not be the center of it.  Also, for women pants because you never know what you will have to climb, lay down on or whatever else to get that perfect shot.

I always try to get to my weddings at least 30 minutes before my shoot time.  I sit in the car reformat my cards, put on my gear that saves my neck from further injury from my camera strap.  Then I pull out the camera and lenses I want to start shooting with right away.  And lastly into the church I go.  This church doesn’t allow photography during the ceremony.  My guess is they have had a problem with photographers in the past.  Sometimes it is because the minister or priest is older and finds all the movement in the back distracting.  But if they kick you all the way out of the church it is a pretty good sign they have had bad photographers in the past who didn’t respect the rules.  Luckily this church does have a glass window that they say it is ok to shoot through.  But I am miles away even with my 200 mm AGAIN can you imagine if I was shooting this with a short lens?  The bride and groom would look like ants.  (I will write more about this specific wedding in my next post because I must say they are adorable!)  After that we go into the group shots. I am very careful not to ever let the after shots go any longer than an hour.  People are fine all the way up to 59 minutes but I swear to you it’s like clockwork, the minute you hit 60 minutes you will get the questions of ‘are we almost done?” etc.  This is another good reason to mentor with a photographer.  You need a plan for the group shots so you get people up and down quickly BUT STILL MAKE IT FUN without yelling at people. I use humor all the time and luckily I have a voice that carries.  If you aren’t good at this HIRE someone to do it for you.  Accept your limitations and find an alternative.  I know one wedding planner who is a fabulous wedding planner but a terrible coordinator.  She has this small little mousy voice that no one can hear so no one listens to her.  Therefore it just makes for mass confusion.  Don’t let that be you because most brides don’t hire coordinators and we as photographers along with the DJ’s end up doing most of the coordination.  But I highly recommend hiring a coordinator even if it is just for the day.  (Again make sure you hire a professional, not someone who decided to become a planner because they just planned their own wedding.)  Look at lots of their weddings.  I have shot over 100 weddings and can show you just about anything you want.  A good coordinator who has been in the business can too.  Also, I would talk to a couple of her/his clients as some coordinators are fun and some are down right mean when they coordinate the wedding.  You want it to be fun not a big bummer.

After the posed shots I let everyone go but the bride and groom and then go into the romantic shots. I don’t want anyone watching because it makes it harder for them to be natural with everyone staring at them.  I also usually do this at the reception venue right before we go in since the reception venue is usually prettier than the church.  (USUALLY-check out your venue before you shoot their to make sure.)  Then the rest of the night are those fun candids everyone loves to shoot.

Here is a quick question you should ask yourself before you take someone’s money to shoot their wedding…  ”What percentage of my shots are printable images?” Meaning would you spend your own money to print that picture?  Is it a picture of the back of people’s heads?  Really would you print that?  Maybe if it was the bride and groom walking away holding hands but not just of some random guests etc.  When you zoom in on your picture at 1:1 ration is it blurry or soft? If soft KILL IT!  It won’t print well.  Computers are MUCH more forgiving than print.  You can only tell what your image will look like when it prints when at 1:1 ratio.  And don’t assume you are a photographer because you get some great shots. With digital ANYONE (well almost anyone) can get some great shots.  But do you think the bride and groom are going to be happy with even 20 amazing shots?  You need to consistently get great shot, after great shot, after great shot.  And you have to nail all the important ones: walking down the aisle, the kiss, walking back down the aisle, intro to the ballroom, the first dance, the cake, the toasts, the garter & bouquet and the exit. YES ALL OF THEM.  I don’t promote any photographer till they can get all those shots three weddings in a row.  Now keep in mind accidents can always happen.  I had a DJ once walk right in front of me just as the bouquet was thrown.  I got half of the brides body and half of the lovely DJ.  To say I was not happy was an understatement.  Fortunately my assistant got it but it wasn’t my favorite angle to shoot  but these things can happen.   For brides who may be reading this as well as budding photographers the economy has produced a ton of semi-pro photographers.  These are the people who bought a nice camera and think the camera makes the photographer.  This is absolutely not the case.  You have to know how to shoot into the light, shoot in dark situations without it being blurry (and if you are shooting on P in a dark church it WILL be blurry) and shooting in a dark reception during fast action like the bouquet toss. These are usually the shots a new person will blow.  Ok, I feel like this has turned into more of a class than a blog post about my day…  ;  )

So the rest of the reception is a blast.  Everyone is relaxed at this point and having a great time. It is my time to just kick back and shoot everything.  I love those shots of people just being themselves and my bride is so smiley I can’t get enough of her!  She lights up a room.  Before I know it the exit is upon us and the bride and bride’s Mom has chosen bird seed – a classic.  So with soar feet, a soar back and a ton of gear to pack back in the car I go home happy.  It was a beautiful wedding.  But that is not the end of my day.  I have to download all my cards then back them up to a separate drive.   I never erase the cards till I have burned two DVD’s also but I usually do that a little later. It takes another 2 hours to load them copy them to another drive then I can finally go to bed.

The next blog post will be the beautiful bridal portrait from my bride this evening that I can now finally show followed by a slideshow in a couple of days about the happy couples big day! For now this wedding photographer is signing off!

Example of shooting into the light and making it work

Yesterday was another exciting day. We made the most of it as it was a rain off again on again as it sometimes is in the tropics. But the beautiful part about it is that it rarely last longer than an hour and the sun is back out again just as bright as if it had never even rained. My husband is a surfer and has always hoped for me and my children to pick up the sport. When I would see him surf on the East coast the waves always looked so small and boring. So finally it seems like a great day with big waves, I just grabbed one of his boards and headed out-determined. Needless to say the waves beat me back as I tried to paddle out over and over. And when I finally did get to try to take a wave I ate it as soon as I grabbed it. But yesterday was a different story. Barbados has BEAUTIFUL waves and with it an amazing surf school, Barry’s Surf School, which I can say actually LEARNING how to get on the board is quite helpful as you can imagine. Jonno was my instructor. A pro-surfer at that! He was fun, full of energy (and Lord help him he needed it with me!) and a great teacher. With his before hand instruction and a little push as these short little arms didn’t give me much speed I caught my first wave and stood up. Not for long as you can imagine but enough that my husband was in heaven. I even rode in the rain, like a true surfer. ha! I rode over and over, never staying on the board long but long enough for me to have fun and maybe someday with some practice I might be able to ride a wave in with my husband. It was a great ending to my last day in paradise. Fun people at the surf school to hang with doing something I had never really done before which is always something I strive for in life. I owe Mark the photographer and the Barry’s Surf School (who I HIGHLY recommend) for these photographs. And yes, I included the good, bad and the ugly! ; ) OH and note to future surfers, don’t surf the day before you have to cart heavy bags around the airport. ; ) Think about it… Can you say “SOAR!!!!” Ok, not that bad but enough to make me a little whiney.

As I sit on the plane ride home I am thinking about all the wonderful things I did and saw this week. I will miss it for sure but it is always good to come home. And I have a wonderful wedding on Saturday that I can’t wait to shoot. I have some fun things planned IF I can fit them in… But they will be so cute if I am able to do them.
So this is my last blog post from Barbados. See you back in Raleigh, photographing all my amazing local peeps!!!

Diane

Photo's Courtesy of Mark with Barry's Surf School

Photo's Courtesy of Mark with Barry's Surf School

Photo's Courtesy of Mark with Barry's Surf School

Photo's Courtesy of Mark with Barry's Surf School

Photo's Courtesy of Mark with Barry's Surf School

Now a REAL surfer! My sweet husband.

Photo's Courtesy of Mark with Barry's Surf School

Photo's Courtesy of Mark with Barry's Surf School

It is day 5 in Barbados but day 1 hardly counts since I spent the whole day traveling and didn’t get it till late at night. The last couple of days were spent alternating between the beach and the pool. I was going to take a boat to see the Sea Turtles but evidently the turtles are full of jellyfish right now so they don’t come up out of the water. So it was off to see the monkeys and other wildlife on the island.

Anytime I can see wildlife that is one of my favorite things to do. My trip to Africa is still the highlight of all my travels and would go back at a moments notice if the opportunity presented itself. For photography sadly it was the film days back then but SOMEDAY I plan to have all those negatives scanned. All 28 rolls of them! Ughh. But here in Barbados the most exotic of the animals is the green monkeys. Very cute I must say. I remember a study from years ago a study we reviewed in my psychology class that when they observed monkeys they had a similar society to our own. Their mothers took care of their children, they developed families within the community which is no shocker. But what WAS a shocker to me is they had mugger, rapists and other such darker sides of society. Needless to say they are very interesting to watch. I also tell you this since you will see one little monkey wasn’t real happy with my getting so close to him. He yelled at me a couple of times. I decided to get my shot and move along for my own good. Here is a little of what I photographed yesterday. Enjoy!