Show me thumbnail imagesAnimals (26 photos)
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Sheep at Sunset (194KB)
One of the many Stanage locals, seen at sunset
Stanage Local (216KB)
An assertive Stanage local
Marmite, Tom's dog (281KB)
Marmite, Tom's dog, asleep on the sofa at Christmas 2007. Marmite is as adorable as he is excitable, which is quite a lot for a Staffordshire terrier cross!
Marmite, Tom's dog (220KB)
Marmite, Tom's dog, reclining on the sofa at Christmas 2007. Marmite is as adorable as he is excitable, which is quite a lot for a Staffordshire terrier cross!
Greyhound Racing at Owlerton Stadium in Sheffield (188KB)
Greyhound Racing at Owlerton Stadium in Sheffield. I'd never been to the dog races before and it was pretty exciting... they run sooooo fast! Betting on them was fun too but I wasn't very good at it so it was a good job I didn't bet much!
Greyhound Racing at Owlerton Stadium in Sheffield (182KB)
Greyhound Racing at Owlerton Stadium in Sheffield. I'd never been to the dog races before and it was pretty exciting... they run sooooo fast! Betting on them was fun too but I wasn't very good at it so it was a good job I didn't bet much!
Grey Squirrel, Sheffield Botanical Gardens (132KB)
Grey Squirrel, Sheffield Botanical Gardens. There are loads of squirrels in the Botanical Gardens, and as a result they're quite tame. I got fairly close to this one (420mm equivalent zoom lens helped!) before it decided enough was enough.
Portrait of Abi (186KB)
Portrait of Abi; Abigail Grace Johnson, to give her her full name... but apparently she only gets called that when she's naughty!
Zeta the Alpaca, near Sheffield. (194KB)
Zeta the Alpaca, near Sheffield. Mayfield Alpacas allows you to walk around their grounds and to look at the Alpacas and Llamas they have there, which are bred for their (very soft) wool. Its a nice half-day-out-with-parents kind of place and the Alpacas are beautiful up close.
Mandarin duck, spotted in the wild in Buxton park (153KB)
Mandarin duck, spotted in the wild in Buxton park. These are pretty rare: the last time I saw one of these was in Sudbury when I was a child. Beautiful!
Henrietta and Pectoria (210KB)
Henrietta and Pectoria: finally I've managed to get a photo of both of them together, both in focus, both not moving, and both doing the same thing. Result!
Swan's head, Hyde Park, London (135KB)
Swan's head, Hyde Park, London
Komodo Dragon, London Zoo (190KB)
Komodo Dragon, London Zoo
Black Mamba, London Zoo (153KB)
Black Mamba, London Zoo
Cockerel, near FOM Nieuwegein (184KB)
The FOM Institute in Nieuwegein where I've worked has quite a few cocks and hens wandering around. This one was out on the path some distance from the entrance gate, and obviously quite happy to roam free in the area.
Seahorse, London Zoo. (140KB)
Seahorse, London Zoo.
A scorpion found at the Palazzone di Cortona in Tuscany, Italy (200KB)
A scorpion found at the Palazzone di Cortona in Tuscany whilst I was at a 1 week conference there: the POISE Summer School. This was one of three scorpions found by Gottfried Strasser in his room - needless to say it was dead when I took this photo!
Tropical Fish (189KB)
You know those colourful pictures they used to have on computer screens in shops to show off the colour quality? This is like one of those pictures. I love the striking reds of the tropical fish against creams and browns of the sea anemone, set off by the blues and greens of the corals behind. This definitely gets added to my mini catalogue of favourite photos.
Toucan (178KB)
Sometimes, animals sit still surveying their surroundings (and allowing tourists to take photos...). This Toucan from Artis Zoo is only 'spoilt' by the brickwork clearly visible in the background. The slightly amusing thing is though: If that nestbox is his, then how does the beak fit in?
Young penguins at Amsterdam Zoo (260KB)
Lots of Penguins, Artis Zoo, Amsterdam. This was around lunchtime and the penguins were near the front of the enclosure, waiting to be fed. I can't remember the different breeds although I'm pretty sure that these are young ones.
A giant Tortoise at Artis Zoo (186KB)
A giant Tortoise at Artis Zoo, Amsterdam, that just made me think of the opening sequence to the comedy 'One Foot in the Grave'...
A cheeky little meercat in Artis Zoo, Amsterdam (190KB)
Normally, one Meercat is always on the lookout. What I'm guessing is less normal is to have your tail bitten at the time! (Although he doesn't exactly look bothered...)
A posing lizard, Artis Zoo (122KB)
Here's another lizard posing for photos. I really like this shot, but you can't help but think that they'd get bored of all the tourists...
Gecko, Artis Zoo Amsterdam. Selective colouring applied. (256KB)
Selective colouring study on a Gecko from Artis Zoo, Amsterdam. For a first attempt at selective colouring taking several hours I'm quite pleased with the result. This has revived an otherwise poor photo, due to the strong yellow lighting in the enclosure. Hope you like it!
Camouflaged stripy fish, Artis Zoo (216KB)
Camouflaged well against the rocks behind, this fish was just hovering still in the water. It was surprisingly difficult to get a good photo though as the tank is quite dark.
Pectoria [one of my parents' hens] eyes up the camera (118KB)
Pectoria is an aptly named brown hen with curiosity overload who roams freely with another white hen in Mum & Dad's back garden. They live in an 'eglu' as featured on the site http://www.omlet.co.uk. Hens are pretty easy to keep and provide hours of entertainment, although they're not exactly photogenic. Admittedly this shot was more luck than judgement, but hey... never mind!
