My walk in the woods

I took my camera and went for a walk in the woods.  The trillium were in bloom...(click for larger photos)

there were butterflies about...

and the bees were buzzing.

Some more photos from Monterey

We went for a walk on Friday morning.

I fell in love with this sea otter.

It had a variety of food on its chest.

It started smashing the sea urchin against the crab.

Oops.  Not hard enough.

Let's try it again.

Still not enough.

One more only real hard this time.

I think that one did it.

Yummy.

A Day at the Aquarium

While spending a wonderful weekend with my college friends, we went to the Monterey Aquarium. What an amazing place! I highly recommend it to anyone who gets within 100 miles of Monterey.

Here are my best photos from the Aquarium. The light was very low and tripods are not allowed, so I am amazed that any of these are even close to being in focus. If you click on the image, you will see a larger version.

Interacting with Dolphins

We spent a week on a Caribbean island over the holidays, and interacting with two dolphins was just about the best part of the trip.  Now, let me say right up front that I have very mixed feelings about keeping such intelligent animals in captivity, but this operation seemed to be better run than others we've seen.  They were in a very large fenced-off part of the ocean, not in a concrete pool.  They are a mating pair and the female is pregnant, so I don't think they can be too stressed.  One cannot help falling in love with these creatures, so I'm hoping that everyone who visits will be supportive of efforts to protect dolphins in the wild.

Anyway, we started off by introducing ourselves and taking a look at their teeth.

Then they gave us a little ride......

After that we got some kisses.......

And then we got the most amazing ride.  They tell you to float on your face and keep your legs stiff.  The dolphins swim up behind you, put their noses on your feet, and push you forward and then up and out of the water.  Awesome.  They will let you down gently, but my foot slipped off and I made a big splash.

Finally, we got some more kisses.

Total Eclipse of the Moon

What a birthday present!  Just before midnight last night, I went outside and was very disappointed to find the sky completely clouded over.  I started to go to bed but then decided to wait until 1:30am when the eclipse was supposed to begin.  Lo and behold, when I went out, now on my birthday, I found a beautiful clear sky filled with stars.  I lugged my big lens outside and got ready to shoot the moon.  (If you click on the photos, you can see larger ones.)

The eclipse creeping across the moon.

Just about to go into total eclipse.

Totally!

It was beautiful with the stars of the Milky Way in the background.

 

Just starting to emerge from the shadow. 

By now it was after 4am.  My fingers were numb from cold, so I went to bed. What a great birthday gift the heavens gave me.

Getting the photos wasn't easy.  I used my Canon 5D and my big mother of a 500mm lens with a 1.4X extender giving me the equivalent of a 700mm lens.  The lens and camera were on a sturdy Gitzo tripod with a Wimberly Sidekick mount on a Really Right Stuff ballhead.  The moon was crossing the sky quite quickly (OK, I know it's the earth revolving) and every few minutes I had to adjust the whole rig to keep the moon in frame.  My fingers were so cold and numb, I could barely feel the little buttons on the camera.  Then, the camera suddenly went dead even though I had put a fully charged battery in it.  I had a couple of freshly charged batteries in my coat pocket, but neither of them worked either.  It was the cold!  These lithium batteries don't like cold weather.  Lucky for me, I had another battery in the house, so I ran and got it and resumed shooting.  I put the other two batteries into my pants, right next to my skin.  When the camera went dead again, I was able to use one of those warmed-up batteries.

My new Studio blog

Today I split this blog into two parts and created a new blog called Cynthia Blanton Studio.  The new blog will have all my posts related to polymer clay, jewelry, and wearable art while the posts about travel, photography and my doggies :-) will remain here.  If you have subscribed to or follow this blog because of your interest in polymer clay, please visit my new blog and subscribe there.  

I made this change because I am hoping to begin selling my work soon, and I want my Studio blog to be more professional and clay oriented than this blog has been.  But please feel free to stay subscribed here.  I enjoy sharing my photography and travel stories.

Miniature Dollhouse Furniture

My mom has a dollhouse, and years ago she bought a bunch of furniture kits from The House of Miniatures, part of the X-ACTO company.  Sadly, these kits are no longer produced.  Mom made a few of them, but after her strokes, she could no longer do such small, precise work.  The kits have been stored away for years, but when Mom came to stay with me for a month, I brought them along and got to work sanding, gluing. and staining.

As you can see, they are finally detailed, and the doors and drawers all open and close.