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Showing posts from February 23, 2014

Butterflies - Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden

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A friend of ours, Anne, recently shared a few photos she shot while visiting a butterfly conservatory in Massachusetts a few days ago. If you've ever tried shooting butterflies you know how difficult it can be to get some nice shots of them! Anne shared a really nice album and it prompted me to go digging for some photos I shot in the butterfly house at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden when we visited in 2009. These feathery, lightweight day-flying insects are difficult to follow in flight which makes it exceptionally difficult to capture a nice photo of them while in flight. To be honest, I don't know if I have ever managed to capture a decent photo of any butterfly while in flight! If I ever do, I am sure it would be completely by sheer luck... and I'm not really the luckiest guy in the world so accomplishing this is highly unlikely. I have, however, managed to capture a few nice shots of butterflies perched on plants while bathing in the sun (not me...  the bu

Rare Disease Day

Today is Rare Disease Day. (Or, is it Rare Disease Awareness Day?)  Because of this occasion, I thought it would be appropriate to write about my feelings toward my illness, Systemic Mastocytosis, and awareness days such as today. In short, I suppose you could say that I feel similar about today's awareness day as I do on Memorial Day. On Memorial Day, I'm reminded of all the ghosts whom have left empty holes not only in my life, but it seems like in my soul as well.  Memorial Day is not a pleasant day for me and I tend to lock myself in my home on Memorial Day weekend. I don't want to watch movies of war... I don't like the memories fireworks evoke... I don't want to do anything which will remind me of what I try so hard to put into the back of my mind every day. Rare Disease Day feels the same to me and only reminds me of my early struggles with this illness... how long ago that was (read how unbearably long I have been struggling)... the support groups a