Taken with a LensBaby. I really need to borrow it back, or buy my own..

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I had half a dozen or so stale hamburger and hot dog buns to dispose of, so I wandered down to the park to taunt the birds. They were not amused. And by they, I mean the couple hundred seagulls on top of the usual mob of ibises, ducks, and geese! I'm going to need to start wearing a hat -- My gear bag and one of my lens cases took direct hits.

I'm rarely the only one feeding the wildlife. As magic light kicked in, this brave citizen saved me from near-certain peril:

My favorite image of the evening was another silhouette:

An excellent way to end the day. If only my day had ended there...

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Yup, last weekend was my semi-annual trek to North Florida for the Paralounge Drum Gathering.

(link takes you to selected images)

Every time I make this journey, I manage to leave something relatively important at home. Once, I left food. Once, I left soap. This time, I forgot my sleeping bags. Unfortunately, I still have too much self-conciousness to pull a "I forgot my sleeping bag, can I share yours?" with a random hottie, but fortunately I'd packed "extra" blankets.

True to form, I hid behind the camera. The campground is a century-old live oak grove just off the Suwanee River. The canopy creates light islands that can result in some truly spectacular portraits. This is, hands-down, the best photo of the weekend:

At night, there were a lot of fire spinners. One of them had a faulty monkey fist which flew off mid-twirl and hit me. Here's a candid that I really liked:

It wasn't all photos though -- on Sunday I finally took out my doumbek and managed to keep up with a couple of amazing players for thirty minutes or so. That, not the nightly fire circle, is what I love about the Paralounge. Small, intimate, with a dancer or two to share the experience with.

On the way home, I dropped in on two sets of old friends, showered, and was promptly covered in dog, cat, and horse hair. Oh, and baby cooties.

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When he's good, he's really good.

But when he's bad, he makes a Catholic schoolgirl look good.

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I wish I could say I got this in the wild, but nope, it was a rescue being rehabilitated at my local zoo.

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She definitely has potential -- If she survives the near-inevitable plunge into total stuckup bitchdom that tends to go hand-in-hand with those blessed with physical beauty.

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The Wah Lum Temple in Orlando, FL threw a birthday party for their Grand Master Chan. This guy was among the handful of folks that brought Kung Fu over to the US, and committed the once-cardinal sin of teaching these secrets to non-Chinese! His sin, our gain.

As part of the celebrations, his school's performance team put on a show. Lots of fast and furious crowd-pleasing moments here!

Well, we doesn't include me unfortuantely, but that doesn't mean I can't tag along as a groupie and take pictures! On a somewhat lighter note, here's a future student:

She demonstrated her mastery of the dragon-burps-up-milk tecnhique shortly after this photo was taken.

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..not that you ever see them doing so. Instead, they scurry around like two-legged roaches, darting in and out of the surf. pecking at sand lice and other delectable delights. De-lish!

Still, these sanderlings bring a smile to my face every time I see them.

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I've always loved the visual feel of a silhouette, but in the real world it's hard to get a pleasing background, or sufficient light to be able to freeze motion acceptibly. Occasionally things come together nicely!

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