Loggerhead Marine Life Center

I know I should be sleeping. But since I can't, I might as well try to catch up on my blogging. While the last few posts may lead you to believe that my life is packed full of adventures, I promise that isn't the case. But when I do adventure, I take a lot of photos.

On Sunday, mom took Doug and I to Loggerhead Marine Life Center for a one-hour tour. Cue the "Gilligan's Island" theme song because once we were there, we had a hard time leaving. I had been there a few times since it's super close to campus (and I have a weak spot for sea turtles) but mom and D had never been. We went because mom was teaching her class about reptiles last week and none of her students had ever seen a turtle and she wanted some photos to show them. I'm kicking myself for not bringing a notebook to write down the turtles' names and stories. Luckily, I've been able to match some of the photos to the ones on their site.

We started our trip in the marine life center proper, looking at the habitat tanks while waiting for our tour to start.





This is a replica skeleton of Archelon, an ancient sea turtle.


The first turtle we met on the tour had some buoyancy issues.Poor Anna Belle can't dive completely, possibly because there is air trapped under her shell from when she got hit by a boat.


The next turtle I met broke my heart. His name is Poseidon and he's a Kemp's Ridley. They are super rare critically endangered and also happen to be my favorite species of sea turtle. Poseidon lost two limbs and has to learn how to get around all over again.



One of my favorite things about Loggerhead is their dedication to rehabilitation. Their goal is to get every single turtle released back into the wild.





One of the coolest things I saw was the work of an orthodontist. He volunteered his time to wire shut Zoe's cracked shell; essentially, he gave her braces.



This turtle has deep scars from where it was hit by a boat and while the soft tissue has healed, the shell has not (yet).

This is Jessica. She's been to Loggerhead once before and was tagged when she was released. Unfortunately, she ended up trapped in a water intake pipe at a power plant because she was too weak to swim out. Luckily for her, FPL (Florida Power & Light) is a big supporter of Loggerhead and sea turtles and got her help. While I was there, she barely moved.

The staff put an antibiotic drip directly into her body cavity.


Perhaps my favorite turtle there (besides Poseidon) is Chestnut, a tiny baby Kemp's Ridley. I had never seen a baby before and had no idea what kind of turtle he was. Baby Kemp's Ridley turtles hatch a very dark color and lighten as they grow older.

He's a really little guy who was washed ashore. Other than a slight bacterial infection, he's in pretty good health and they just need to get him strong enough to not get washed back again.


There were a lot of little ones who just needed to get up their strength and wait for a good day to be released back into the wild.



Loggerhead also does a lot of educational programs and community outreach. They happened to be setting up a lab as I walked by.


As soon as mom saw this turtle blowing bubbles at the window, she called me over. I wish I could remember which turtle this is because s/he was so cute.



I went to a marine science high school and majored in environmental studies in college so I get very interested in the sea turtles' welfare. But our visit to the marine life center wasn't all serious; we had a lot of fun posing for these photos.

In years past, I've written mushy Valentine's Day posts. While the story behind this one is pretty mushy too, I fear that the retelling just won't do it justice.

Doug started a few weeks ago, asking if there was anything he needed to do or make for me for Valentine's Day. I asked him for balloons. He decided that he wanted to get me balloons like the ones in Up. If you've ever seen the movie, you know how beautiful and colorful they are. (And Ellie & Carl are one of the cutest couples ever.) Rather than try to explain, I recommend you go watch this montage.

My mister got me balloons and took me to the nature preserve during golden hour for a shoot. This may be one of the best Valentine's Days ever.























"My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I love you." -Up


Doug, I've loved you since the first adventure. I'll love you until the last. And in between, you and I can go to Paradise Falls or the Dry Tortugas or wherever the wind takes us. Always, forever, and a moose. <3

Sunday, February 5, 2012

go-karting

I'm feeling slightly uncreative with my title. I think that's to be expected after going through over 1000 photos in a little over 48 hours.
Friday was team building at work and we went to an indoor go-kart track. I was hoping my heart would cooperate itself so I could drive but that just wasn't the case. Instead, I busted out my telephoto (with the wonky autofocus) and took over 1000 photos of my coworkers driving like crazy people. They're pretty competitive sometimes. That just made it that much harder to get good pictures.

























For those of you interested in my specs, I shot these all hand-held with no flash. Program mode, autofocus for most of the shots (but manual for the diptychs where they're coming around the curve and there's blue in the foreground and they're really sharp/in-focus), ISO 1600 for the first few and ISO 2000 for the rest.

this is why I do what I do

I got a letter in the mail today from Doug's great-grandfather, Ralph. GGR, as I affectionately call him, is my penpal and we write back and forth from Ohio to Florida. Today's letter was a simple request: he saw a photo of mine on Facebook from my visit and he wanted a copy. It's a photo of the driveway of his son's house and in the background, you can see the family homestead.

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch have since moved to Colorado so this photo is worth even more to Great-Grandpa Ralph now. I'm mailing it out to him today, along with a few other photos from that trip that should mean something to him.
This is why I live my life through my camera: to document the moments and the places and the people that I don't even want to forget.