Update & Tamarin experience

Hi all! Definitely time for an update after over a month's absence! Depression & life stepped in and have kept me distracted from blogging and much else since my last visit, except for the last couple of weeks where things have started to improve again, & I've actually been getting out with the camera a little. My 30 day photography challenge has been put to the backburner for a little while, but I will definitely be doing one soon, followed by a 365 project! I've slowly been getting back into my needlefelting, which has been a lot of fun, even though it's meant that my knitting is not getting worked on as often as it should. With 3 shawls, 1 hat, & 2 pairs of gloves still on the needles, I really need to make sure I still make time to knit! Next week I should be able to show you the 1st of this year's felted projects, along with a few from last year that just need a few finishing touches, which I will be doing over this weekend. We've also gone and gotten a few more frogs/tadpoles, which meant we needed a bigger tank. Luckily, I was able to get one at an affordable price on Trade Me, so tomorrow our first 2 frogs plus the new tadpoles and froglets will all be moving over to the new bigger tank, and I'll get some photos to share with you next week as well. 

As for the photography... for the first time in MONTHS, I've started finding the joy and passion I used to experience with photography before I took my big break from it, & am finding myself itching to get out & about with the camera in search of wildlife once again. This has lead to a couple of zoo visits, along with some time spent at the lake, all then followed by some rather long sessions at the computer getting back into editing. BOY am I rusty! Both with the photography & the editing. I now need to relearn my camera, & really start learning Photoshop & Lightroom again. This time though I'm already pushing myself further than before, especially in Photoshop, experimenting with things in there I've never even touched before. With my annual zoo pass in need of renewing next month, I'm going to make sure I use it a lot more than I did last year, so there will be plenty of zoo photos hopefully popping up on the blog in the coming months. To get things started, I have photos to share from Thursday's trip to the zoo, where I had the amazing fortune to get the opportunity to go into the Cotton Top Tamarins' enclosure to get more photos and feed them. I was so excited that my camera shake got pretty bad.. lol! So a lot of the photos didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but to be honest, this time I don't really care. The experience itself, being surrounded by one of my favourite animals, all calling their high pitched squeaky whistle, racing above my head, eating their favourite treat of wax moth larvae straight from my hands (they are sooooooo gentle!!), even just being able to get a closer look at the tiny 2 month old baby they have (as well as their previous bub who's now about 10 months old).. it was all an incredible thing to experience and even now, a few days later, I'm still buzzing!! So.. now to overload you with photos of these adorable wee creatures (along with a couple of others). It was really hard narrowing down which photos to share, but here we go. 

Munching on their favourite treat, wax moth larvae

The youngest baby, about 2 months old, has only just recently started exploring instead of constantly being on an adult's back. The keeper who let me feed them said this was the 1st time he'd seen this little guy explore so much on his own. So cute, so cheeky, so teeny!!!

I love the comparison of paw vs hand here!

Even using his tongue to help hold on!

Can I have another bug please?

Silly happy baby!

I gots food!!!

Nom nom! A pawful of wriggly larvae!

A Pygmy Marmoset. The zoo only got these creatures in just before Christmas, & this was the first time I'd ever seen them. They were even tinier than the Cotton Top baby! I'll certainly be spending a LOT more time taking photos of these guys in the future! They're small enough to sit in my hand, with plenty of room to spare!

Mother and son

Love their little moustaches!

Spider Monkeys

This guy so makes me think of Stripe from the Gremlins movie!

Another keeper spotted me taking the photos of this guy on the ground & said they were rare photos as apparently the Cotton Tops hardly ever go on the ground! He's busy looking for some of the larvae they dropped when we were feeding them.

Found one!!! Nommmmm!

And a few photos from my zoo trip a couple of weeks earlier.... 

Serval... such a beautiful cat.

Another of my favourite creatures... the shy, quiet Ruffed Lemur

He/she was REALLY enjoying this egg!

Why hello there!! Water Dragon

Right, that's enough photo bombing for now. I'm offline for the weekend, but will hopefully have plenty to show you next week. Have an awesome weekend everyone. :o)