What's This Doing Here? by taffy

What's This Doing Here?

Thanks so much for your wonderful, fun, and interesting comments about Vickey's and my Big Field adventure. In the light of day today, it's more fun that frustrating and we're both enjoying the fact that we have a good story that involved so many different island folks. And thanks for your fav's that put the daisy shot on PP -- a rare event so I'm most appreciative!
This shot was from tonight -- Vickey called to say there was a snapping turtle looking to lay her eggs in their driveway (she is associated with the Central Michigan University Biological Station so knows much more about the natural goings-on here than I do). So right after dinner, I hopped into the car with my camera and went over to take some photographs. Her husband and dog came back from their walk and the dog showed a lot of interest AND a lot of respect -- never once went near the front/face of the turtle.
Very cool shot, love the DOF
June 29th, 2014  
Fav! Love the look the dog is giving the turtle. Respectful indeed! Neat story too!
June 29th, 2014  
Fun capture and great dof
June 29th, 2014  
Awesome shot
June 29th, 2014  
Love the dog's expression!
June 29th, 2014  
Great capture! I love the expression on both the dog and the turtle's faces....Is it a good idea for turtles to lay eggs in a driveway? Don't they need to bury and hide them?!
June 29th, 2014  
OK, so... you have a lot of viewers and frequently I don't comment, but this is really a fun shot. That dog's expression makes him look like a Border Collie, working a sheep. Lovely blues and textures on this turtle. Excellent.
June 29th, 2014  
@rosiekerr Rosie, thanks for commenting! I do appreciate it -- and have always meant to tell you I like your square photo that shows up next to your name. So colorful!
June 29th, 2014  
The god's expression is priceless...
June 29th, 2014  
@lambda @taffy I meant "dog's" :)
June 29th, 2014  
@lambda Big smile...I knew what you meant but it definitely was funny to read. I'm sure this dog thinks he's god in his house!
June 29th, 2014  
@panthora Last year Vickey and her husband built a little fencing area around the eggs to protect them. I don't know if any little ones survived. It didn't seem like the wisest turtle...it was lying in the main road when Vickey spotted it and got some of the CMU staff to help move it off road. It walked around her house for quite awhile (she has photos of it moving) and then settled on this spot and didn't move once while I was there. Fascinating...no clue what it was responding to in the area.
June 29th, 2014  
This is so cute!
June 29th, 2014  
Great photo Taffy, love the expression on the dog's face. Once bitten, twice shy?
June 29th, 2014  
Love that tortoise
June 29th, 2014  
@golftragic Vickey said he'd never been hurt by one, but he seemed to instinctively know this was a dangerous creature. It was funny watching him walk back and forth behind the turtle, always about a foot away.
June 29th, 2014  
Fabulous capture, the dog's expression is priceless.
June 29th, 2014  
A lovely shot!
June 29th, 2014  
Wonderful dof the dog's expression is priceless!
June 29th, 2014  
Great capture Taffy, what a good dog, you must let us know if it laid it's eggs or not.
June 29th, 2014  
@dianeburns I'll try to keep you posted -- especially hoping to actually see the eggs!
June 29th, 2014  
@taffy that would be a real treat!
June 29th, 2014  
This is so much fun
June 29th, 2014  
@taffy Dogs are just wonderful in sensing stuff - good and bad. No wonder we love 'em to bits. We don't have snapping turtles here in Oz, thank goodness.
June 29th, 2014  
The dog's expression is just brilliant, so full of curiosity but wary as well. Super capture and tells a great story.
June 29th, 2014  
Fantastic capture, my dog would be to scared to get even this close.
June 29th, 2014  
what a great capture..
June 29th, 2014  
Love this, it makes me laugh. It should have the thoughts of the 'participants'
June 29th, 2014  
Lovely colourful image. I do like the dof in it.
June 29th, 2014  
Such an interesting and funny creature. It is nice that the dog did not venture into it.
June 29th, 2014  
I like Rosie's comment about the dog looking like its rounding sheep, it really does look like that. Brilliant capture, and well done on the Pp
June 29th, 2014  
Interesting!
June 29th, 2014  
Pea
Lol, good question. Fun shot Taffy
June 29th, 2014  
What a super picture.
June 29th, 2014  
Aaaw what a stunner -- a very puzzled look on his face !
June 29th, 2014  
A great capture. Fav
June 29th, 2014  
This is such a lovely shot. I love the dof and the dogs expression. Great to see the turtle with its head out. Fav
June 29th, 2014  
Love this so much fun to see different animals up close and personal.
June 29th, 2014  
You've captured the dog's stance and expression perfectly - I love this shot! Fav.
June 29th, 2014  
Great capture, like the DoF and the way you composed this shot
June 29th, 2014  
Wow this is cool. Great story behind this shot.
June 29th, 2014  
Great shot!
June 29th, 2014  
Great capture! Just perfect.
June 29th, 2014  
Great timing, Taffy. Huge fav! And thanks for the info about the mentoring yesterday. I appreciate it.
June 29th, 2014  
Great shot - what an indifferent turtle and concerned dog :)
June 29th, 2014  
What a great "Wild Kingdom" capture!
June 29th, 2014  
Haha, be careful. Great capture.
June 29th, 2014  
Cool picture. Congratulations on making the Trending Page. Well deserved.
June 29th, 2014  
Great and rare image; good use of DOF.
June 29th, 2014  
Great subjects and pov. Love the dog's expression! Fun capture.
June 29th, 2014  
Such a cute shot
June 29th, 2014  
haha, I love this!! great catch!!
June 29th, 2014  
Great fun capture, Taffy.
June 29th, 2014  
That's a great shot. The expressions on both creatures are priceless.
June 29th, 2014  
ha-ha!Love how you captured their both expressions!For such pov you must be were laying even lower than the turtle.fav!
June 29th, 2014  
Great animal 'capture'!
June 29th, 2014  
Oh gosh this is great!!! The dog creates all the action and the turtle is like things are in slow motion. Perfect.
June 29th, 2014  
How exciting to see turtles. Love the look on the dog's face.
June 29th, 2014  
Great focus and composition
June 29th, 2014  
Great capture and focus.
June 29th, 2014  
Great capture!
June 29th, 2014  
Love the dog's expression. Priceless
June 29th, 2014  
Awesome shot! You really captured the moment! Fav!
June 29th, 2014  
Great nature shot of a very important event for the turtle. I thought that dogs had a kind of sixth sense or special sensibility :)
June 29th, 2014  
What a great capture. Love the dof with the dog staying behind at a respectful distance. I haven't seen one of these snapping turtles before but I don't like the way he is looking at you Taffy!!
June 29th, 2014  
Love love love, this! Great capture! Look at his face; love it!
June 29th, 2014  
Awesome capture of the dog's expression!
June 29th, 2014  
This is so cute!
June 30th, 2014  
great expression capture
June 30th, 2014  
This is so adorable-love the dog's expression- great fun shot !!:)
June 30th, 2014  
what fantastic timing Taffy ... superb ..Fav
June 30th, 2014  
I have had a good look through your albums at those images that I haven't already seen in my feed and have also had a read through your 'details'. My get pushed to you is a combination of techniques seeing as you are already well versed in each technique individually. Okay so here goes .... I would like to see a 'low key, long exposure image in B&W'. Sound okay ?
June 30th, 2014  
What a fun capture. Love this.
June 30th, 2014  
@sewsharyn So excited!! I've needed inspiration! As soon as I read this I quickly put my camera on my tripod and ran down to the beach. I've spent the last 20 minutes doing long exposures of the sun setting. I'm going to start on this tonight and by week's end, hope to have something worth posting!
June 30th, 2014  
@taffy Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
June 30th, 2014  
@friend2303 Good timing that their walk ended, but this was one of about 10 shots I took of him walking back and forth and looking at the turtle. He was really funny, and two of the shots showed this very wary expression and his leaning in. The others were 'flatter' in style. I couldn't believe he didn't go anywhere near the turtle's face -- good instincts!
June 30th, 2014  
Delightful capture! Love it! Fav
June 30th, 2014  
Great shot! Smart dog! Those things are nasty!!
June 30th, 2014  
Wonderful capture. You have really caught the moment here! Wonderful DOF...and the turtle is incredible! So very FAV!
June 30th, 2014  
Love it, what a great capture, Taffy. Dogs and animals in general are so instinctive by nature. Some heave to find out the hard way while others just know. FAV
June 30th, 2014  
Taffy, I'm late to this party, but this is a fabulous moment that you captured. The noble turtle and skeptical dog. Great expressions (for both), a fav!
June 30th, 2014  
@darsphotos @eyesmile Thanks Darlene and Gena, for fav'ing this! It was such a stroke of luck that they happened back from their walk, as I was about to head home because of all the mozzies.
June 30th, 2014  
How fun and playfull!
June 30th, 2014  
Clever dog, I've heard they can be a bit nasty, have never seen one though. Wonderful capture showing how wary he was.
June 30th, 2014  
Super fun capture,great dof:-)
June 30th, 2014  
Great capture of the dog's expression!
Love the turtle
Fav
June 30th, 2014  
I love it!
June 30th, 2014  
Haha. A look of curiosity and respect. Smart dog. They can spin around incredibly fast and have quite a bite
June 30th, 2014  
What a fabulous storytelling photo. The turtle's colors are amazing. Fav.
July 1st, 2014  
Fabulous story shot! The look on the dogs fave is amazing fav
July 1st, 2014  
super DOF
July 4th, 2014  
Fun capture
July 4th, 2014  
Great capture! And that was a smart dog to not go near the front :) Snapping turtles aren't the turtles to mess with
July 9th, 2014  
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