Little Panda Girl

Sweet smiles and grass lolling.

Kids and Animals

Doesn't get much more fun than this! Kids and animals. I don't remember seeing any scared kids. Little girls and boys were either all captivated and/or really really happy. Many grown ups too, indulged the kid within. Here are a bunch of fresh off the camera (wide angle f/4, 17-40mm w/ flash & diffuser) pictures from yesterday. Above: the Giant Thorny Phasmid, below: big python, hedgehog, hmm I don't know my lizards... a bunch of giant millipedes, little python, tortoise, hissing cockroach, eastern lubber grasshopper, chicken, some other snake (sigh, and I took herpetology too), and possum. The possum is way cuter than I'd have expected for a possum. Up til now, I've only seen possums hissing at me, or playing dead. AnimalPalooza was a huge success - let's hope for AnimalPalooza II next year! Thanks to SaveNature.org for putting it all together.

AnimalPalooza - Bringing Nature To You!

Are you the Bug Lady? Small children would ask as I crossed the playground, lugging two large duffel bags. Ripples of excitement punctuated with delighted shrieks spread from hopscotchers to kick ballers. The Bug Lady Is Here! I felt like a minor celebrity, and perhaps Pied Piper as children ran alongside, trying to peek into my bags.

Children love bugs. In my pre-Momma life I taught for SaveNature.org using live insects for Insect Discovery Lab. Preschoolers and kindergardeners had no misconceptions, no prejudices. They loved to watch, to touch, to hold, the Giant Millipede. The Hissing Cockroach. The Australian Walking Stick. First and Second graders bubbled with uncontainable excitement, hands shot into the air and curiosity tumbled forth, even before meeting the insects. Where do they live? What do they eat? How long do they live? My bugs inspired Pure Wonder - the kind that only kids experience - that’s what I loved about my job. One particular second grader enthused to Norm Gershenz, the director of SaveNature.org: This is the best day of my life.

This is why I think all San Francisco parents of wee ones need to know about:
AnimalPalooza. This Saturday September 24, 11am to 5pm at Fort Mason.
http://animalpalooza.eventbrite.com/
“Get closer to nature than ever before with hands-on encounters with wild animals.”
Much more than bugs. It’s not every day that you meet a Lemur. Hedgehog. Skink. Ocelot. Fennec Fox. Brought to you by SaveNature.org and featuring your favorite Bay Area non-profit conservation groups and education organizations.

Love and Respect for Nature. It was at the top of a mental list of Values I Want To Impart Upon My Daughter that I made while gazing down at my burgeoning belly, right after Fondness for Ultimate Frisbee. Hikes at Mount Tam. Turning over rocks near Stowe Lake. Swinging by the Cal Academy. David Attenborough documentaries. And every so often, an event like AnimalPalooza for an up close and personal encounter with animals we don’t see everyday. That ought to do it.

These Boots Were Made for Toddlin'

Sitting Still is the opposite of Toddlerhood, and thus the best toddler photos are candids. For me, a toddler shoot is opportunistic documentation of her explorations and conquering of this Big Fun World, finally accessible by her newfound ability to Run. It's a delight to watch a child discover a gazillion new things, one after another! I don't expect her to look at the camera - there are so many more interesting things to look at. It's up to me to try to predict where she is headed; otherwise I'd wind up with a lot of photos of her rear view. My main advice for toddler shoots - let tots be tots! Trying to convince them to sit and smile is just going to frustrate everyone. If she wants to drag an unphotogenic doll around with her throughout, run around in circles or stick her tongue out, so be it - that's who she is at 2 years old. A photo shoot with a toddler is an hour of playtime.

I am very fond of this set of photos. Yes, it was a typical gray San Francisco day, but such conditions didn't interfere with this tot's curiosity and energy. Excellent postpartum workouts, these toddler shoots!

Pizzazzy

Iphone photo editing is addictive; I do it while baby/dog walking, while computer photoshoping with my other hand, and while breast-feeding (TMI? Well, if you're a baby mom right now, you will understand how BFing is a great - and sometimes the only - time to catch up on all things digital.)

I have a new favorite photo app: Magic Hour. I did pay for it, but what's a few $ for the capability to make brilliant photo art on the go? This app has presets like all the other apps, but what is awesome is that it has manual controls for brightness/ saturation/ contrast, curves (if you dare mess with those), frames, vignettes, tilt-shift (selective focus), and textures. Any of these features can be adjusted on the existing presets, and can be saved as new presets. Which can then be shared with the entire Magic Hour community, for free! Also fantastic - it outputs relatively hi-res pics. All this in a few user-friendly minutes. Bam! Photos go from I Obviously Took This With A Camera Phone to Pizzazzy.

The Dahlia Garden outside the Conservatory of Flowers is at peak bloom right now. Gorgeously hued, impossibly large (as big as my baby's head!) and richly varied from bush to bush. Perfect subject for camera phone photography. And of course, nothing is as frequently photographed as our own babies (and pets). I couldn't help but include just one pic of my own Little One, snoozing away.