The Shell Game

Thursday, September 10, 2009


I had to hit the rewind button on this one. My wife reminded me of our trip to Pt Defiance Park a couple of weeks ago. Remember this waterfall? Well just around the corner lie these turtles, sunning themselves on a nice warm rock. They were so relaxed, so comfortable that they hardly made a move. In fact it took my wife, older daughter and I about fifteen minutes of standing there watching them with our non believing seven year old for her to agree they were real. You know, it would have only taken a second or two for us to say that they weren't, but something makes us parents just keep working at it.

12 comments

  1. brian stout Says:

    lol =) they can sit there like statues for long periods of time! and btw, i am all over the one day work week. i will start advocating for that right away!

  2. Zingo Tots Says:

    Beautiful picture!

  3. Beautiful shot and lovely photo !! Thanks for sharing..Unseen Rajasthan

  4. Rob Siemann Says:

    the colors are gorgeous!

  5. That is so totally neat. Super picture. Love it. MB

  6. Lois Says:

    How cute! I know what you mean about working at it. I think it has something to do with the payoff of seeing their little face light up when they get it!

  7. Anonymous Says:

    Thank you for visiting my Pick a Peck of Pixels blog and for your comment about not being able to properly use a fountain pen.

    The secret to using a fountain pen with a rubber bladder is to squeeze the mechanism several times to expell all the air and then let it suck up the ink to fill the bladder completely.

    Then, you must squeeze it again to let a drop or two back out of the bladder. That creates some space for the bladder to keep on sucking as it tries to expand to his molded normal size. That suction keeps the ink up in the bladder on any pen angle and doesn't allow it to make a blog when you try to touch the point to the paper.

    The same work for those fountain pens that fill by screwing in a piston that has a rubber collar that sucks ink up into the molded reservoir. When full, turn the screw mechanism the other way to let a drop or two out and then suck up again and that suction prevents the ink in the reservoir from leaking out.

    Turtles are scare around here. I have been to the creeks more than once this spring and never saw one and no frogs or snakes. I may have been way to early and they could have been in the water still hibernating but I just thought they are less of them nowadays than there used to be.

    You did get a magnificent photograph and the water is stunning around the base of the rock. Excellent photography. I wish you had also taken a photo of just one of the turtle's head or mouth or eyes. They have such dramatic colors -- gosh I wish I had a turtle to go take a picture of.

  8. AB Says:

    I think the pea is under the tortoise at the bottom.

  9. Thanks everyone.

    Lois: Yep, you are right.

    Abe: You're right. I wish I did have a close up. Hey, maybe I could UPS one of these guys to you.

  10. Lowell Says:

    Hey, not to worry; this is one heck of a nice photo....great colors and the reflection is gorgeous...it's also nice and sharp!

    Love the title!

  11. Jacob: Thank you sir! The nice thing about shooting turtles is they hold still. ;-}

  12. tapirgal Says:

    Due to having too many blogger pages open and getting confused, I posted my reply on my comments page. So, here goes: :)

    I will definitely have to come up to your park again. It would be such a treat to see turtles in the wild! I've seen them once or twice, but it's been awhile, and not around here. I wonder what kind they are. The only western native freshwater turtles I can remember are California Pond Turtles. I wonder if they're non-native, or ??? I love the colors in the water. This is a wonderful photo!

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