Parris Family

Some good friends of mine welcomed their first child, Zaire Jasiri, into the world about 3 months ago. A beautiful and happy family easily creates beautiful and happy pictures!

Finn McCabe

Last month my nephew Finn was born. He is such a good baby (despite not wanting to let my sister sleep much) and in the short amount of time I was home to meet the guy I was able to get a few great shots of him. Hopefully I'll get to return home soon to see him as he gets more and more active. Not that a sleeping and eating baby isn't cute...but a laughing, wiggly, giggly baby is even cuter!

Manly McQueen

I have always enjoyed photography and trying to capture "that moment" or "that emotion." I've recently started learning how to edit all those photos on Photoshop (which I seem to need to relearn every single time due to the fact that I get results in such a round-about way that I can seem to duplicate the results in any sort of timely fashion). Well, I have just added a new member to the family that is, no doubt, going to be enduring hours upon hours of a camera being shoved in his face.


Meet Manly "the voice" McQueen:


Manly is a 9 week old Brussels Griffon (remember the dog in As Good As It Gets?). He has spent the past week learning how to wrap the rottweiler around his little paw, how to take out my best friend's Chinese Crested (who is at least 4 times his size), and how to avoid the cat that is less than amused by the whole ordeal.




Manly is not shy about speaking up. He seems to have a screaming-for-what-he-wants voice (also used as an alert system when you accidentally step on him...hey, the boy is quick and only 2.4 lbs....he's hard to keep track of!) and his "opinion" voice (used to just plainly tell you whatever conversation is on his mind).

Within the first two days, Manly schemed how to use the rottweiler to jump up onto the overstuffed chair. It took him as few as three tries. By that point he luckily made it because Phoebe (the rottie) was a little annoyed at that point. I can only imagine what I am in store for as he grows taller and smarter. The ride should be quite entertaining.

Spring is in the air

Besides rampant allergies and the constant layer of yellow pollen on EVERYTHING, who doesn't love the spring time!? It makes me excited for long walks, ice cream, flowers and babies!! I don't know that it is possible to come up with the "cutest" baby...even the ugly ones are cute in their own right. You might argue this point, but we can just agree to disagree. Baby zebras are pretty much undeniably cute. Who can resist that mohawk and their goofy horse-play?

Breathing

Teeth

Elmo

Don't let these teeth fool you. Elmo's size, weighing in around 500 lbs., and large teeth were his only intimidating features. He is my first gorilla love and still my "baby boy." Hour long water fights on hot summer afternoons were the best as Elmo is one of the few gorillas who LOVES water! He also held an affinity for Muppet movies. Such a sweet soul. He just happens to have some big chompers ;)

Nelson Mandrilla

I took this picture mid yawn, but I can't say I would have trusted Nelson any further than I could throw him. That's just a mandrill for you.

Watercolors

Telling your mom that you are bored, can sometimes reap benefits you didn't expect: I have an artist for a mom, so being handed an art project when "bored" was not an unusual event. I suppose that is what helped me to develop my ever evolving painting skills which I didn't really appreciate until after I graduated college.

My internship at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, in Glen Rose, TX, presented me with ridiculously amazing subjects. On my weekends I was left without a car, sitting in our intern house (more of a tin shack really...but I loved it) in the middle of a couple hundred acre pasture filled with wildebeest, ostrich, blackbuck, zebra, and Thompson's gazelle. The most I could do was drive my little Mitsubishi cart (hardly road worthy but it did take me from pasture to pasture) to visit the animals in my care (Red, Maned, and Mexican Wolves, Coati, Capybaras, an Ocelot, a goat, and a cheetah) or the neverending plethora of giraffe, rhino, cheetah, prairie chickens and other various hoofstock. I loved it. But the Texas heat made me want to stay indoors on my days off. So without cable or an escape to the city, I started to paint.

What are "knuckleprints"?

There are lots of things that I love in life. Some things I love more than others, and some things I love so much that I can't imagine ever doing without them. Animals are one of those things. The 5th graders that I teach often ask me "What is your favorite animal?" Gorillas are one of my greatest passions and would likely be an answer I would give them. I was blessed to work with them for over 7 years as a keeper, and must admit that they are probably one of my favorite species. However it is really the individual animals and their unique personalities that I have encountered that are my favorites. Several gorillas are among the mix of my favorite individuals, but it would be hard to not chuckle at the mishaps of Ichabod (the awkward giraffe who couldn't decide if he was a goat or a human and loved to steal anything out of your car), Snickers (the goat who not only helped to raise Ichabod, but numerous other hoofed species), Mac (the one eyed seal who made my first internship so much fun by following me everywhere I went), or Toean (the lovable orangutan who loved to whistle). Most of my artwork is my feeble attempt to capture their unique personalities.
Knuckleprints are the impressions in the dirt that gorillas leave behind as they walk through the dirt and mud. I've collected many castings of the knuckleprints gorillas I have worked with have made. I love having them around to remind me of not only their size and strength, but also their gentleness and humor. I hope that my artwork and sharing of stories will also leave a memorable impression.