Not As Long As It Looks

Seriously, it isn't. I know that this blog post looks terribly loooooooong... but it isn't. The length lies in pictures, and you don't even have to look at the pictures you don't like, so I predict it won't take longer than five minutes to go through the whole thing. (Unless you pause to have conniptions over adorable animals, that may take some time.)

Thursday before last, went to the Calgary zoo with our homeschooling group. (Or, well, I went. Lizzie changed her mind at the last minute.) And did I say that the Olivers' backyard was a photographer's heaven? It was only the Garden of Eden, the zoo is heaven. (A heaven that I could only spend four hours in, unfortunately.)

I went through two sets of batteries in those four hours. And I got 100 good pictures out of it. Here are the 29 pictures that I painstakingly picked out of the pile of tempting options to put on here:

My first successful attempt at: 1) taking a picture of a bird 2) having a sharp foreground and blurry background

My first truly successful attempt at a silhouette

Ooh! Birdie!

Awww...

Not entirely sure what this thing is, but it's cute.

I don't know about you, but I definitely believe that zoos encourage laziness.

"Hey! I can touch my nose with my tongue!"

(Conceited sniff.) "Well, I just won a scholarship."

"Huh?"

So gloriously pristine.

I know gorillas are probably horribly violent animals, but doesn't he look sweet? (Happy squeal)

Run, run, run, little piggy.

Stomping Prohibited

I always knew they were evil

Girls' Camp Create Project

The first morning of Girls' Camp this year, we were told about how every person longs to create something. I totally agree. In fact, in my book's creation story it even says, "And the One grew restless for he longed for something to care for, as all beings must. So He created the world." Everyone wants to create, even two-year-olds who run around the house smashing everything. They're creating a nice, amusing mess, right?

They talked to us about this, we watched a video about it. Then they told us that the morning's activity would be our 'Create Projects'. Every girl would go to the station that they were most interested in (sculpting, cake decorating, painting, fruit bouquets, fashion design or photography) and make something. That evening they would be presented in the Art Gallery.

I did the photography. We went to the back yard of a family called the Olivers. Their yard is a photographer's heaven. I never knew that flowers like that could grow in the rough weather of Southern Alberta. They took us there and let us loose to take as many pictures as we wanted. We would put up two in the Art Gallery.

The two hours that we were there weren't sufficient. They felt like five minutes or a thousand years. Either way, I didn't want to go when we had to.

It took me forever to pick which two pictures to put up. Eventually, I turned the decision to someone else. We decided on these two:

Out of these two, I like this one better. For some reason it looked baby blue when it was printed out.

What are those things anyway? They look like raspberries or something, but they aren't.

Now that I look back, I wish I hadn't chosen the second picture. Oh, well. I did. Here are some of the other pictures, the good ones, that is:

The fountain

They had the most darling little bridge. I have a thing for bridges.

This picture was actually an accident. I was trying to take a picture of a fish, but my exposure was far too low.

Does anyone know what kind of flower this is? It looks almost like a daffodil... but I seriously doubt that it is.

This picture was runner up for being in the art gallery instead of the 'raspberry' picture. But it looked too much like the first one, so I decided against it.

I love this one. It is so dramatic.

Sarah really loves this one. I'm not sure why. I like it, but it really isn't my favourite.

I love the way that this one looks like it's out in the mountains somewhere, instead of just a pile of rocks in a yard.

I can't decide which of these two well ones is my favourite. I love them both with all my heart. They are my favourite pictures ever! They look straight out of a fairytale. Maybe I should put them in one...

That is all! Those are my favourite pictures I took at the Create Project! I'll be posting pictures of the Girls' Camp Hike as soon as I can. (Along with a lengthy description of what the hike was like.)