Category Archives: photography

September 21, 2020 · 6:50 pm

On Their Level

When I see an animal, I have an overwhelming desire to smoosh my face against theirs. Horses, bearded dragons, birds, dogs, cats, unicorns. We’re taught at a young age not to do this because the animal might get spooked and react, understandably, violently. News flash, this is not a deterrent for me.

I want to get as close to them as possible. I’ll throw myself on the grass in front of a chipmunk whose made the mistake of popping its head out of the ground. So far, they all flee in terror but I’m not giving up. If it’s a dog, I’ll put my face right in theirs and go in for a snuggle.

When I met my aunt’s newest dog, I flopped right down in front of her and dispensed kisses and belly rubs immediately. My aunt’s response was, “You really get down on their level, don’t you?” Every time. If I’m looming over an animal, I feel like I’m intimidating them, when all I want is for them to love me. I want to make myself as small as possible to make them as comfortable as possible.

When I’m hanging out with Julian at Winslow, I’ll be on the cobblestones cuddling him. He’s eight inches tall, tops. I’m almost 5’7″ and tower over him. I want him to feel safe, so chicken poop be damned, “hello, ground.” He falls asleep in my arms almost on contact.

Person holding rooster — My little love, Julian

I was hand-feeding George the tortoise once and manipulated him into climbing on me. All 35 pounds or so, precariously balanced on my kneecap, as he tottered back and forth. Painful? Yes. Pure joy? Also, yes.

Tortoise climbing over a human knee. — I didn’t take a picture of George balancing on my knee, so I tried to get him to do it again.
Him climbing over a corner of my knee was as close as I could get.

One time I brought mini donkeys Zorro and Bianca a few treats and sat down on the floor of their hut with my back up against the wall. They may be “mini,” but they’re wider and longer than I am tall. On the ground, they’re the looming ones.

Close up of donkey — “Oh. Hey there, pal.”

For me, it’s just better access for snugs.

Zorro decided to check for more food by biting and stepping on my extended legs. Repeatedly.

Bianca put her face right up next to my ear and stayed still. For minutes at a time. Her soft breath was audible as I gave her kisses on her snoot.

Person with a donkey — Yes, she is whispering sweet nothings to me in our glam shot.

I was barely visible, surrounded by hundreds of pounds of donkey.

I left bruised and happy.

Get down on their level. Sure, it might hurt sometimes, but it’s worth it.

Buckets of snow were dumped on the farm and I spent time with friends I haven’t seen in a while.

There was a huge snow storm here in Mass a couple of weekends back. I arrived at the farm early to talk to Deb and found it filled with volunteers shoveling paths through the thick white blanket that enshrouded the property. By that time, the snow had stopped falling but multiple feet had gathered and they’d just gotten power back. Since the shovels were all taken, I explored for a while. With it being the middle of winter, I kind of have tunnel vision when I’m there these days. I haven’t been to the main barn in over a month! It was nice to catch up with Liam, Jackson and the rest of the goats.

Here’s shy Liam smiling for the camera.

Gully was still in the barn and had taken up residence in a feeding trough! (Seriously, who could not be in love with this guy??)

Levi was still in the barn too and decided that he’d had enough of this “on the ground” sort of stuff so he ventured into the rafters. (Look at his cute little coat!)

These guys were busy chowing down on the snow.

Rude!

And Cloud decided that it was high time he rolled around in the snow! I was the only surprised one, apparently. Everyone else was business as usual.

And then it was time to head to my barn.

No words, just beauty. (above and below)

Not to be outdone, Athena wanted to show off her pretty eyes (and to be the final image of the post!).

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Filed under athena, goats, gulliver, horses, lunar, photography, roosters, spirit, winslow farm

Tagged as animal photography, animal sanctuary, animal sanctuary volunteer, goats, winslow farm

January 8, 2013 · 1:39 pm

A new furry friend!

Meet Cookie!

I’d never met him before Sunday. Never even seen him in fact, but Deb said that he’s been there for a while. He popped out of the woodwork while I was hanging out with Pandy and hung out with me (he was pretty hissy at her) for a while. I’ve never seen a cat willing to roll around in the snow so I was happy that I caught this little guy on tape doing just that.

I also discovered quickly that he’s the type to be SUPER affectionate and then give you a hearty swipe to let you know who’s in charge. So, we kept our friendship at arm’s length. I’m always happy when I make new kitty friends at the farm and Cookie was no exception.

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Filed under cats, photography, videos, winslow farm

Tagged as animal photography, animal sanctuary, animal sanctuary volunteer, cats

January 1, 2013 · 2:29 pm

Rabbit, Rabbit

I learned a few weeks back that rabbits LOVE donuts! Because of that adventure, I’ve become friendly with a few standoffish ones who live in an enclosure with a few doves. Due to the snow and the fact that one of the bunnies is black, my camera got really confused with the lighting and I love the results.

Here’s half of the super cute pair and it’s also a way to show perspective on what it actually looked like at the moment.

This is his friend…

Even he’s smirking at the interesting lighting!

Happy New Year, everyone!

May 2013 be everything that you wish it to be.

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Filed under bunnies, photography, winslow farm

Tagged as animal photography, animal sanctuary, animal sanctuary volunteer, bunnies, winslow farm

December 31, 2012 · 1:18 pm

Pandy, my love

I absolutely adore Pandy who takes her senior citizenship and turns it upside-down with a ton of spunk. She’s always been one to chase a pine cone around no matter who is throwing it, but she’s not the most affectionate dog. So, I’ve been working on that aspect of her personality a bunch. I always make sure to pet her before our game of pine cones and she’s gotten pretty used to it. About a month ago, Deb was feeding the roosters grapes which was HILARIOUS because they’d rush over and snatch them up, yelling all the way and then stagger off in a random direction (roosters look ridiculous when they run). I noticed that Pandy was looking pretty bummed that she wasn’t getting any. She tried darting forward to get one but the roosters squawked her out of the way and snagged them. Then she’d stand there with a dejected look on her face. Deb gave me a handful, saying, “I don’t think she likes them but let’s see” and it turns out that she loves them! That story has nothing to do with affection, I just like it. Back on track, my newest thing is to pull her in for long hugs and she’s gotten into them. She even leans into me and patiently waits for me to finish and then runs off in hot pursuit of a pine cone. Once she’s focused on the game, however, there’s no getting close to her, but those hugs are GREAT beforehand!

This week, with all the snow, finding pine cones was challenging. She found the tiniest one that I’ve ever seen and we played for a while. I went off to give treats to Levi and Rango (who I’ve yet to introduce you to. What is WRONG with me? Rango introduction coming soon…) and she followed. She managed to unearth (or un-snow, if you will, wahn-wahn-wahn) a HUGE stick and she went even more nuts over it than she does over the pine cones (I think I’m setting a world record for the use of the words “pine cones” in this post)! She even waited patiently for me to continue our game when I went to visit some bunnies. (I’m standing inside their enclosure.)

Here’s a video of her with the stick. Right in the middle, Levi makes a funny nose and distracts all of us, but Pandy’s attention is only diverted for a second and then it’s game back on!

Pandy rarely looks at the camera or stays still for a second, so I was thrilled when I got this photo.

Prettiest girl! Oh, Pandy, I love you so much!

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Filed under dogs, pandy, photography, videos, winslow farm

Tagged as animal photography, animal sanctuary, animal sanctuary volunteer, winslow farm

December 30, 2012 · 8:31 pm

Summer to Winter

Somehow I moved right past fall and into winter without writing a real post. For the most part, it’s the sounds that change the most for me. While summer is filled with the buzzing of bugs and heavy air, fall creeps in silently leaving behind the noisy insects (I do miss the dragonflies, of course) and I’m able to focus on the quiet munching sounds that my friends in the barn make. I could sit in that barn listening forever.

Very little changes with the animals themselves. They go about their business and days must feel pretty similar to them. I tend to my chores and relish the time that I spend with them. I spend a great deal of time cuddling with Gully, who’s back to his affectionate self, his super huggy, head butting, best goat friend of mine self.

One thing that’s new and really exciting for me is that my relationship with Athena has really developed. I’ve looked back in posts and realized that the recent stories about her are stuck in my brain and not on the blog yet. Where to begin? Well, first off, after Athena finishes eating, she sits on the ground. I started to use this time as an opportunity to give her head rubs which she immediately HATED but was unable to jump up and run away from me and then a second later LOVED because they feel awesome. Who doesn’t love head scratches? Not Athena! So, every time I’d do this, it would terrify her at first until she remembered that she likes the feeling and she’d close her eyes and lean into them. So that’s pretty huge news on the Athena front and I could stop right there and be perfectly happy, but it gets even better! Treats have become a new line of communication for us, allowing her to interact with me on her own terms. I’ve always given them to her but used to just break them up and add them to her bowl. One time, I put one in front of her nose and she sniffed cautiously and took a bite. Interesting. We continued that dance for a while until recently when she became bold about asking for them. She’d lift her head with sniffs to see if I had one in my hand and if I did, she’d make it clear that she’d like one. Today, however, she walked right up to me, almost cornering me against the barn door and ate the treat with such oomph that my finger actually touched her teeth. Twice! Unbelievable! Perhaps soon she’ll let me pet her while she’s standing up…

Yesterday was the first real snowfall of winter here and the snow had finished its journey to the ground by the time I woke up this morning but everything was still covered in fluffy powder. Best of both worlds when tromping out to the farm. I brought my camera along since it’s been dark by the time I’ve gotten there for the last month and here are some of the images that I captured.

One of the many entrances to the enchanting world.

Part of the snowy landscape.

One of the rabbit houses, glowing with lights.

Beautiful Athena basking in the sun.

Spirit begged for the treats in my pocket and started to eat snow off of the gate to distract me from his real motive.

After I wouldn’t give into his request though, he stole some from the back of the tractor!

The mallards have been much calmer, as of late, but still pretty awesome.

Little Miss Zoey, who has gotten super fat lately, squishing herself under the fence to see me.

Levi acts like a dog so he gets to wear a doggie coat!

And last, but certainly not least, these two guys are perched on the fence like this every time I leave now. They wait until all of the animals have gone into their barns and cozy places and they get hunker down.

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Filed under athena, behavior, bunnies, cats, dogs, ducks, geese, gulliver, horses, lunar, photography, roosters, sheep, spirit, winslow farm

Tagged as animal photography, animal sanctuary, animal sanctuary volunteer, winslow farm

October 31, 2012 · 4:34 pm

Mrs. Turtle

I’d like to introduce you to my sweet friend.

Mrs. Turtle lost her leg after being hit by a car (before she came to Winslow). She gets along just fine without it and is a super loud purrer and extremely affectionate. I make sure to visit with her every week and most of the time she finds me before I can seek her out. Ah, friendship.

What a pretty lady!

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Tagged as animal photography, animal sanctuary, animal sanctuary volunteer, cats, winslow farm

August 22, 2012 · 5:12 pm

Ribbit!

Look who I found hanging out in Lunar’s stall!

Don’t worry, Lunar wasn’t there yet.

The little guy didn’t even try to hop away from me! I almost put him in my pocket and brought him home. I think that our cats would have had a differing opinion than mine to love him forever, though…

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Tagged as animal photography, animal sanctuary, animal sanctuary volunteer, winslow farm

July 11, 2012 · 3:10 pm

Dragonflies everywhere!!!

Dragonflies are all over the farm right now. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to have significant experiences with a couple of them. While many have been flying very close to me, none were bold enough to let me get up close until a curious one landed on the fence last week and wasn’t scared when I walked up to it. I noticed that it had one back wing that was slightly crumpled. It didn’t seem to affect its flight though. It sat on the fence and stared at me and even let me put my face right up to it, so I got a great look at its old man mouth and huge eyes. It didn’t fly off until after I was distracted by and returned to Gully.

See how the wing is bent?

Look at its little open mouth!

Yesterday, however, I made even more progress with the local dragonfly population! This particular one had a very bright green head and a blue body. It happily danced and flitted about, landing on the fence and flinging itself away again. I’d try to approach and off it would go, only to land a few feet away. I patiently danced with it until, at last, it stayed and peered at me. I slowly reached out my hand and got it close enough so that my extended index finger was right in front of its face. Expecting the big launch, I was super excited when it stayed instead. I moved my finger a tiny bit closer and the dragonfly reached its two front legs out and grasped the tip of my finger! I stayed like that for a few seconds and then very cautiously, I gave it a tiny nudge. And if it hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t have believed it: it climbed up onto my finger!! I stood like that for as long as I could stand it and then slowly turned my finger around and brought my hand so that it was about a foot from my face. I stared into that dragonfly’s shiny reflective eyes (different than those of the ones on the one from the week before), perfectly content. I milked it for as long as possible and then the dragonfly resumed its flight. I went to get my camera in the hopes that I’d be able to capture it on my hand again but all I could get were a few shots from a few feet away.