Go for Humor

Sometimes I think we take our photography too seriously. There are images which we need to make for the sheer fun of it, don't you think? The quality may not be the best, the lighting might be poor, the focus slightly off, the color may need more correction than you want to mess with - but the photo is just plain cute. It's a memory of a place, or an experience, or a time...and it's a treasure. Do you have photos like that? If so, are they shoved in a box, or framed to enjoy? Or shared with others...like a good laugh and a warm smile?

This is my little "friend" from Yellowstone National Park last summer. There was a colony of ground squirrels, actually, all around a lovely river where we were photographing fly fishermen on a warm summer's day. You actually had to watch where you walked, or you could stumble in one of their holes. But they were also the most comical little creatures and I eventually turned from the river and just started watching the holes. Up one would pop. Run to another hole. Dive in. Pop up. Look at me. Stare, even! And this one just had to tell me how he felt about my presence in his domain. Fabulous!

To be on the safe side, I gave them wide berth. I used my 200mm 2.8 lens on my Canon body....and with image stabilization I was able to get some pretty decent shots.

Have fun. There's more to photography than capturing stellar images every single time!