Who doesn't like Meerkats? I think ever since the TV show Meerkat Manor, everyone loves them.

This photo was taken at the Racine Zoo in Wisconsin. I think this was the first weekend I had the 55-250 lens, so I wanted to give it a shot. This lens performs well for the price, but it isn't quick at all. I'm not talking about f-stop either, I'm talking about focusing quickly.

Not too much work in this photo. A bit of sharpening and edge vignetting.

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I have no idea what type of flower this is. However, I like the orange contrast and the broad pedals.

I took this picture at Deep River County Park a long time ago when I got my first camera capable of shooting RAW. Lately I've been reviewing some of my old photos and trying to revive them. This photo needed a bit of a crop and a saturation increase in LR3. How does it look?

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When we were in the Smoky Mountains, we went to Ripleys Aquarium. I hadn't really tried to photograph inside an aquarium before, but it is quite hard! The low light and glass makes it tricky to get a clear shot.

I had brought my 'nifty 50' me so I could keep the shutter speed up in such low light. This photo isn't exactly clear, but not too bad for my first attempt. In the future I'll need to increase the ISO a bit.

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When I was in Washington DC at the beginning of June, I snapped several photos but none of them really impressed me. Today I took some time to bring this photo from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial into Topaz Adjust. I gave it bit of an oil painting look with a bit of HDR. What do you think?

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With all of the talk of the Perseids meteor shower last week, I figured I'd try to get a photo or two. It was much harder than I ever expected. I only took a few photos, but they were all at least a 4 minute exposure. I was only able to capture one small meteor streak in all of the photos I took, and this is it. I won't be offended if you can't see it in the above photo :)

I am not overly impressed with this photo, but it was my first attempt at capturing a meteor. I definitely learned I'll need to bring bug spray next time, and also maybe a remote control with a timer. It'd probably be good to get further away from the light pollution as well.

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The last trip we took to the Outer Banks, we went on a dolphin watch cruise. It is very hard to catch the dolphins as they are coming out of the water. By the time you focus the camera and snap a few photos, they are already on their way back under the surface. I took several hundred photos on the cruise, and almost all of them are of the backs of the dolphins with their heads under the water. I need to get a faster lens and more experience trying to anticipate where the dolphins will surface.

Anyways, one of the few photos where you can actually see the head of a dolphin is above. My mom loves dolphins, so this is for her.

If any of my sisters are reading this.... Favorite!

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Here is another shot of the Kitty Hawk Pier, only at night this time. This was a long exposure (30sec), and you can see the pilings at the end of the pier in this shot.

I really enjoy photography at night. This is probably my favorite photo from our last OBX trip. We might get it printed and hang it in the house.

This photo is mostly right out of the camera. I did add a bit of fill light in Lightroom 3 to show more of the beach, but other than that, not much else was done to the photo.

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I know I've posted a lot of lighthouse photos on this site before, but I don't think I've posted many of the Ocracoke Lighthouse. It's the oldest continually operating lighthouse in the state of North Carolina, and has a lot of history that can be traced back to the days of Blackbeard the pirate.

The lighthouse itself is a short lighthouse at only around 100ft tall, but part of the charm of the lighthouse is the surrounding island. Ocracoke is an isolated island that can only be reached via boat or car ferry. There are a lot of small shops and restaurants, and the locals speak with a unique accent that you won't hear elsewhere.

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The Elizabeth II is a replica of a 16th century sailing ship that is docked at Festival Park on Roanoke Island. The replica boat offers tours and activities for children so they could see what life on a ship in the 16th century would be like.

We went on a ghost tour in Manteo, and one of the stops was at a gazeebo where you could clearly see the Elizabeth II lit up at night. After the ghost tour, I came back with a tripod and snapped this shot.

This photo is pretty much as shot. I did a bit of sharpening and a little bit of noise reduction in Lightroom 3.

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On a recent trip to the Outer Banks, I took this photo of the Kitty Hawk Fishing Pier. The pier used to be much longer, but storms and hurricanes have reduced the length quite a bit. From the pier itself, you can see the old pilings still further out past the end of the pier.

I added a sepia tone and a bit of edge vignette in Lightroom 3. I had taken several photos from this spot, but this is the only one that didn't have a shadow of myself in it. I need to get better about catching those on the small LCD on the back of the camera.

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