crawdog's photostream

Frog. Very tiny, itsy-bitsy frog in the new frog exhibit in Amazonia at the National Zoo. Shot with available light (really should use flash), but was able to get a somewhat decent f-stop (DOF) for this photo. This photo is cropped about 30%.

Anyway, I'm been very busy for this past week, and will be very likely out-of-touch via internet for two weeks (I'm going to have a lot of photos to see when I get back).

For over ten years, as part of an organization that held a Memorial Day weekend ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, I placed flowers at the grave-sites of Americans of Japanese ancestry.

Saburo Tanamachi was KIA in the battle to rescue the "Lost Battalion" where the mostly Japanese-American 442 Regimental Combat Team suffered 216 KIA and 856 wounded. The surrounded and trapped Texans that they saved, numbered slightly over 200 survivors.

My Uncle lost his brother in this fight. His brother was a member of I company, which started this battle with 186 men. When it was over, the company consisted of only 8.

Many years later, Saburo's niece (Sandra Tanamachi) was a leader in another battle; this was to "persuade" Jefferson County in Texas to change a road named "Jap Road" to something other than a racial slur. After twelve years, Sandra won this battle.

A few years later, I met Sandra; at that time I didn't know that she was the niece of Saburo. So I asked her if she was related to the person whose gravesite I had placed flowers for many years. She told me yes, she was a niece.

I sent this photo to Sandra. This is the power of photography, to give to someone a special moment in time. And to say thanks.

I later learned that Saburo was one of the first of two people of Japanese descent to be interred in America's most hallowed ground.

The male kori bustard in the enclosure next to the cranes and storks is fairly "easy" to photograph when he comes up close. The thick mesh is not good, but it essentially just limits one's range of usable aperture.

But I like this one because the kori bustard is wet, and shows off his semi-punk "hair." Standing in the rain does have some benefits!

Note that the lighting is pretty bad, and this is slightly overexposed to make this look "sunny." The bad lighting does provide a more even/flat lighting condition that doesn't lead to blown highlights.

Koris at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

A kori bustard shows off the reaction of rain with his feathers. This is obviously not a duck. If I didn't know better, I would mistake this for a punk bustard.:-)

It was drizzling when I took this photo; it essentially rained all day. I thought about what critters would not take to kindly to rain. In a great "duh" moment I thought about the koris.

Golden lion tamarins also don't too kindly to rain. I miss having an opportunity to watch GLTs in the rain.

Kori bustards can be seen at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC. Breeding season is soon (if not now), and one can watch the six beat "booms" of the male koris.

The Prevost's squirrel really wants the walkie-talkie.

You can provide your own caption to this photo.

This wily squirrel can be seen in the Small Mammal House at the Smithsonian National Zoo.