Just like Snowflake Bentley...

we took some pictures of nature. Our nature just happened to be at the zoo. Since we have no snow (and probably won't get any this year) we took the easy way out and photographed large animals hidden roaming behind high retaining walls. :)

I had a dentist appointment this morning. Those of you who are familiar with how I homeschool, you know how much I HATE to give up my Mondays to do anything outside of the house. So to salvage the day, I gave the kids some pointers on photographic composition and turned them loose. They used my hand-me-down camera, which they proudly wear around their necks. They aren't all that happy that they have to share this camera and they would much prefer to a hot pink, lime green or radiant blue color on their personal camera. But for now the boring black Fuji will have to work. I told them that even though Bentley's parents spent their entire savings on a camera for him, we would not being doing following suit.

So anyway, I introduced photography as what it means: light writing. The we talked a bit about focusing, filling up the the view finder and not moving when taking a picture. Just some basics. Here are some of their pictures:





And I took this one. I drove all the way to the zoo so my children could catch and carry around a mean furocious lizard. :)