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Fauna

So yesterday was plants... of course today had to be animals.

It makes sense right...

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
A white heron cruises near the surface of Lake Arrowhead Wednesday afternoon as it looks for a spot to land and fish in the grass covered by water near the edge of the lake. Cooler weather and lake-filling rains have attracted more people and wildlife to the lake this summer.

This was from Sept. 12, 2007. It was one of those random assignments again. The paper needed some glam shots of Lake Arrowhead since the water was up high and things were going well.

I knew that the water birds would be in abundance out there... so I grabbed the 400mm f2.8 lens and the teleconverter because I knew these birds would be skittish and not let me that close to them to photograph.

One good thing about herons is they tend to fly in one direction for a long time... making it fairly easy for me to track them across the lake with the camera. That's exactly what happened here. I crept closer and closer... getting several shots along the way before I spooked him and he took off.

This shot didn't even make the newspaper. Sad isn't it.... it's a freaking great shot. I look at it and just think of some kind of horse enters a bar joke.

This was at the Whispers of Hope Horse Farm on May 1, 2007. We were doing a short story about the farm auctioning off several horses to raise money. These were two of the horses up for sale and I just waited patiently for both of them to come towards me in their stalls.

At first... they just stared at me. Not what I wanted at all, but after a few minutes, they relaxed a bit and started goofing around. Kinda like kids... and dogs. Eventually, they don't really care that you are there.

I wish adults were this easy to photograph.

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Dusty, one of Sandra Wortham's alpacas, eats a bite of grass at her land on Turkey Ranch Road. She has more than 20 of the soft fleece coated animals.

This is one of my top five shots of the year. It cracks me up every time I see it.

It's an alpaca... and I'm pretty sure it looked at me and smiled. Not 100% certain or anything... but I swear it's trying for a spot on America's Next Top Model or something.

This was one of those Lara Richards assignments that you never know if it'll be a gold mine or a lump of coal. Turns out... this was pretty funny.

And yeah... it's fleece is as soft as it looks.

Posted by Jason Palmer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)