Fun Photographing Sunsets!

When I first began my photography journey, I quickly learned that sunset was the best time to snap pictures of my subjects. I also learned that when there are beautiful sunsets, I can take photos of that, too! I had so much fun in the summer, going out practically every night to take sunset photos. The sun glowed on the camera in a different way than it does when you see it with a naked eye, making it look even more mysterious and eerie. When fall hit, I couldn't take as many great sunset photos because all the pretty sunsets faded a bit. But, when we went down to Topsail Beach for Thanksgiving, the sunsets were gorgeous. They glimmered and shined so beautifully and I had such a great time taking photos of the sun setting over sand and water. When my family and I went to the bay area of Topsail, we found that the sun set right over this bay, casting a glow of warm colors over the water. Sunsets are so fun and beautiful to look at, but they're even more fun to photograph!

Testing Out My New Zoom Lens!

I love photography and I love animals. So, when you put them together, I'm very happy. That's why I love wildlife photography so much. It combines two of my passions and is so much fun. The Cincinnati Zoo is one of my favorite places to take wildlife photos because they have such a wonderful range of beautiful animals that live in realistic, pretty exhibits.

Recently, my mom and I went on a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo to take some photos because for Christmas I received a brand new 600-milimeter telephoto lens! I really wanted to try it out, and what better place than a zoo? Once we entered the zoo, we went immediately to their Mexican gray wolf exhibit. Wolves are my very favorite animal and this zoo has three stunning wolves on display. I tooks lots of photos of the wolves, who were resting and relaxing. The new lens was absolutely amazing. It was so much different from my smaller telephoto lens! We spent lots of time there, before we headed off to see the adorable painted dogs, snow leopard, and eagles. These eagles almost looked like they were posing for me, with their sharp eyes perfectly still as I snapped photos. The Cincinnati Zoo provided perfect models for photos and a wonderful afternoon.

Many creatures in the animal kingdom are believed to be one thing, when they are actually quite another. Wolves are a perfect example of this. Wolves are often villainized as "big bad wolves", but in truth they are kind, gentle, majestic creatures. Recently, they were removed from the endangered species list and some states allowed nearly their full population of gray wolves to be hunted out. Now, all across America, gray wolves are being torn away from their families, because wolves live in packs, family groups exactly like us. Often when a human hunts a wolf, they are taking another wolf away from their parents, siblings, or even pups. The biggest thing that we can do to help is to write letters to the President and other elected officials asking them to relist wolves on the endangered species list. We can save wolves if we try. Don't let their howls be silenced.

Snow Pup!

Our puppy Blizzard, aka Blizzy, is a husky, so she is naturally built for snowy weather. She has thick floofy fur, an undercoat, and tufts of fur between her rough paw pads. All this husky snow protection seems to work marvelously, because freezing cold, snowy and icy weather seems to be her dream weather. Recently, there was a cold front, and it dropped down to -5 degrees! It snowed very heavily, so that our whole yard was white. Blizzy seemed delighted in the cold weather, though. I could not get any photos of her because the weather was too cold for my camera. However, a few days later it was actively snowing some more and the weather was warm enough for my camera to work, so I bundled up and went outside with Blizzy. She looked so blissful out frolicking in the snow. At one point, she even sat and posed for me in the snow with an icy stick in her mouth, looking up at the snowflakes falling around her. This was definitely my favorite shot from the day. Blizzy loves the snow and I've tried to document that through my photos, because every photo should tell a story and I try to make my photos do just that.