Trip to the city

Yesterday we had the most fabulous day in the city. We took the kids downtown, then to the Royal Alberta Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit. While we were there we ran into a friend of my husbands, who just so happened to be the curator of the Bug Room at the Museum, so he took us on a private tour. He let the kids touch the bugs and everything! Hissing Cockroaches, Leaf Bugs, Stick Bugs, Millipedes... all sorts of nasty things! After that we drove around town, had supper on Whyte Ave and then headed home. Great day all around. Here are a couple pictures from the day.

Edmonton City Hall and pool:









This is Government House on the Royal Alberta Museum grounds.





This is a beautiful Korean Pavilion on the Royal Alberta Museum grounds:





Ceiling of the Pavilion:



This is the Ksan Totem Pole, also on the Royal Alberta Museum grounds, it's 37 feet tall.
From bottom: Strongman, beaver, raven with frog, bear with salmon, owl.
Artists: Earl Muldoo, Chester MacLean, Victor Mowat



This is at the caboose at the End of the Rail park in Edmonton:







Cool graffiti down on Whyte Ave.

Couple new macros

Just wanted to show a few new macros I've taken with my new lens (love that lens!):

This might be my present favourite macro, it's an Oriental lily that just bloomed in my garden yesterday:



Hosta:



Lilac flower:



Hosta:



Water drops on grass:



Bronco grass:

Architectural Alphabet

I have been slowly getting together images for a photography project I've been thinking about. This idea is not original to me, but I thought it was a great idea and I've done similar things in the past for children.
The idea is Architectural Alphabet Photography. Taking pictures of "thing" that look like letters and place them to spell out words, names, etc.
Here are a few ( in B&W, I will offer them in color as well) that I have added to the collection. I expect it to take forever to get the entire alphabet but once I have the collection complete, I will be offering them on my website.

V:



E:



G:



O:



S:



I don't have an "A" yet, so made do to spell out VEGOS! haha!

Valley Zoo

A few weeks ago my little guy went to a birthday party at the Valley Zoo. Here are a couple pictures from the trip:

The first thing the kids did was decorate envelopes and drop a few meal worms in them, tape them up and put string through the envelopes. Then they were taken to the monkey enclosure where a staff member hung the envelopes from the trees and the monkeys would come along and tear open the envelopes and dig out the worms to eat. It was quite the show! This is my kid's envelope, you can actually see the silhouette of the meal worm inside the envelope!



Porcupines eating broccoli (the porcupines smell REALLY bad!)



Cute little armadillo:



Petting a (de-skunked) skunk:



Shark!