My 10 Best Photos Of Animals

May 11, 2007 at 12:40 pm (Lists, News, Off Beat, Photography, Reviews)

Originally, this was going to be another submission to the group writing project being run by problogger, but it looks like I missed the cut-off time. To quote Sil on the Sopranos, “whaddaya gonna do?” (Actually, I that could probably be a quote from any number of characters in any number of mobster movies or shows. But Sil always has the best look on his face when he says that.) Since I missed the deadline anyways there’s no need to limit myself to five. I have enough candidates, so I’m going for a full ten pictures of furry, feathery greatness.

To qualify for this list, the pictures have to meet two requirements. The first, I had to take the picture. The second, I have to like the picture. That’s it. If you like any of these pictures, click on them to take a look at larger versions in my online galleries.

Dove in the Planter

The great thing about this picture is catching the bird in flight with a sharp background. But the real reason I like this picture, is because it’s in a series of pictures of that show the doves nesting in my wife’s patio railing planter. When I first discovered them, I nearly spilled my coffee on myself. I opened the patio door, and bam! Feathers everywhere!

Oh Buoy, Sea Lions!

Aside from being cuter than is probably legally allowed, the best part of this picture was it was taken in the wild. No zoo here, these chubby flippered fellahs are lounging on a buoy in Eliot Bay in Seattle.

Wrinkles the Rhino

Actually, I have no idea what this rhinoceros’ name is, but wrinkles seems a pretty cool name for him. Or her. I guess I don’t know that either. I really like close ups of animals with a lot of visual character. Wrinkles definitely has that. Kinda reminds me of my dad. (I’m gonna get an email about that…)

God Save the Queen

Is it any wonder people refer to the lion as the king (or in this case queen) of their domain? They have power and benevolence down to an art form.

Turtles on Parade

This is going be one long parade. I snapped this picture of my slow-moving green friends in the Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Malaysian Monkeys

These rowdy little fellows love tourists. And they really love picking tourist pockets. What could be better than a monkey pickpocket? I caught these guys on film in the Pangkor area of Malaysia.

Savannah, the Atlanta Falcon

This falcon actually flies at Atlanta Falcons football games, and probably qualifies as an animal celebrity. Even so, I wouldn’t recommend trying to get an autograph.

Shaggy the Orangutan

If Shaggy from the Scooby Doo cartoon was a monkey (as if he wasn’t anyway), he’d probably look like this. I love this picture, you can just see “what, me worry?” written on this guy’s face.

Otter Behave

These little guys are criminally cute. And they run in ambling, furry gangs causing mayhem to anything 2 inches off the ground. Or anywhere in the water. I have a ton of pictures of the whole posse, and it’s tough to pick out the best.

Sir Chomps-a-lot the Panda

I read an article somewhere recently that pandas have to eat an amazing amount of bamboo because of it’s low nutritional value. (Sorry I don’t have the link, I didn’t realize I would be blogging about it!) Well, this fuzzball proved that article right. My wife and I waited for 30 minutes to see if we could get a picture of him doing something other crunching loudly on bamboo with no luck. I know that they usually give pandas cool sounding Chinese names, but if I ran the zoo, this panda would be Sir Chomps-a-lot.

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