Overkill

First I must start with the story of how these photos came to be.

I made the animals.  These are a culmination of a few days work.  And I wanted to show them off, so naturally I decided to blog them.  (Blog them. It's like ... ten years ago that would have made NO sense to anyone!)

So, I grabbed my point and shoot camera.  A point and shoot camera is what you normal people (non photographers) use.  It's automatic with a few extra options and probably takes video.  It cost a few hundred dollars, takes a bajillion mega pixels, but you only make 4x6 inch photos or even just put them online.   I have one of those and I love it.  I also own a multi hundred dollar Canon 20D camera with battery grip, two expensive flashes, reflectors, diffusers, etc. etc. etc.

For some reason, I find it more convenient to use my smaller camera.  But naturally I'm not happy with the results.  You must get the camera close to fill up the frame, but then the flash is so close to the subject (or small beaded animals) that they get all blown out.  So what do I do? I spend 5 minutes creating a diffuser which ends up being of an old receipt and masking tape.  After I made it I realize I've attached it in front of the viewfinder and not the flash.  So two minutes later it has been moved and is ready to go.  In all of this time I could have been finished photographing and uploading with my expensive camera.  But no worries! Because that feeling of accomplishment and genius was worth it.  My diffuser? Worked great. Here are my results! Notice the more even lighting than from photos before.

Lion

Before:                                                          After:

Big Eyed Dragonfly

Before:                                                          After:

Bug (of some sort)

Elephant:

Owl:

Palm Tree (I made it up myself!):

Monkey

Peacock:

Crab! My fav!

Baby Penguin:

Whale! With water spout!

Flower, Flower, Ring:

Happy Mermaid:

(Happy expression must be imagined)

Super Cool Web Thing:

It covers my hand, it's super fun.

And on another sad note:

Lemon passed away today.  I'm clueless as to why.  I read all about it everywhere and I don't think I'm doing anything wrong.  He's been hiding the last few days, but he was alive.  And today he crawled out to the middle and then a few hours later he was dead.  Grape is currently out of hiding and in the same spot, let's hope he lives.   He might just be sad and looking for his friend.  I guess we'll find out. =(

I have crabs...

Two of them actually.

When the husband and I were on our honeymoon (in Gulf Shores) we were at this cute little seaside shop with hermit crabs in it. And after a day of talking about it, we decided to get one as our new pet.  They're easy to take care of, they're funny to watch, and they are super creepy looking.  Husband calls them Demons from Hell. Because seriously, crabs freak most everyone out.

As my best friend says, I digress.  We named those crabs Jack Sparrow and Mullet Murray.  Pirate themed, as are most of my ideas.  Jack and Murray didn't last long.  It may have been due to the not-so-great-for-crabs store we bought them at.  It may have been the fact that they fell a lot- we didn't realize how quickly they move.  Or maybe I just suck as a crab mom.  But honestly, they never really at much and they were rarely active, so I think they had problems to begin with.  Jack and Murray died about two weeks after we got them, Jack lived a few days past Murray.  It was difficult to accept their deaths, but not as my close pets (let's face it, who can get an emotional attachment to a crab?) but as the fact that I couldn't keep freaking hermit crabs alive.

So I tossed them out (I was too creeped out by dead crab bodies to bury them) and put the stuff in the basement.  And moved on with my life for a few weeks.

Or so I thought!

Mom and I were at the mall the other day and I went into Earthbound Trading Co. where I saw a giant tank of well cared for hermit crabs.  And my heart lurched, I decided I might have to get another one.  Or two, since they like to be social.

Unfortunately, my bad record of crabbies made me hesitate.  So I left the store to think about it and had barely made it three more stores down before I had to have them.  I went back and picked out two, both are very small with a yellow and a purple shell.  I also grabbed 2 extra shells (they like to have options to move into) and food.  Who knew I should have saved the old food?

Another cool thing about these guys is that their treats can basically be any food, just in a super small proportion.  The size of a pinky nail will cover them for a few days, and that's pretty cheap if you ask me.

It's been a debate on what to name them.
I like the idea of coordinated names.  Here's a list my mom came up with:
Scuttle and Scoot
Scuttle and Sebastian
Yellow and Purple
*Lemon and Grape
Daisy and Violet
Tweedledee and Tweedledum
*Fred and George
*Ursula and Sebastian
John and Kate
*Jack and Jill
*Pebbles and Bambam
Chris and Pat
Beauty and Beast
Cinder and Ella
Anastasia and Drizella (Ugly Stepsisters)
Dora and Diego
Frank.
Herman.
Jack 3 and Jack 


The list continues on facebook with friends piping with more suggestions.  The man suggested I keep it to Lemon and Grape to keep them dehumanized, so if they die it's less sad.  Which totally makes sense, and I think Lemon and Grape are cute names anyway.  My other favorites are Fred and George and Jack and Jill.   I guess I'll just see what sticks.


They're incredibly active little buggers.  The yellow one is always out of his shell exploring, the purple one buried himself UNDER their little shell cave (hot glue and free shells from the beach!) last night.    They're super fun to watch.  But a lot of people are freaked out by the idea of holding them.  I don't mind letting them wander around next to me, they're really great climbers but fall over a lot- which helps my amusement.

Their tank on my bookshelf:

The yellow one crawling on the empty shells:

(see him on the top right?)

Who knew one could write an entire post on hermit crabs?