Long, long ago, there used to be a small, downtown cafe in St. Pete that was decorated with year ’round Christmas tree lights strung around the ceiling. I could almost swear it was where the Central Coffee Shoppe is now, but not certain. That was more than 30 years ago.

This particular decoration, pictured above, is my favorite, even after all these years. Thank you, Nathan.

I think I may drag out my Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Easter Bunny decorations, too, while I’m at it.

Isn’t it great to know where your food comes from? The word, “community,” in that phrase really strikes a resonant chord with me. There’s something “right” about it being grown by real people, not a monolithic corporation in some distant state or country. This salad has got to be fresher than anything on earth.

I’m happy with this picture. Click on it and see the detail. Depending on your monitor, you may be able to click on the resulting picture to get in even closer. If you do, you’ll see capers, artichoke hearts, blue cheese dressing, green olives, cheddar cheese cubes, and sardines! Did I leave anything out?

Bornean orangutan (male) “Rango” Age 36. The only great ape from Asia, orangutans are among the most endangered animals on earth.

What a privilege: a private tour by the person I’m convinced is the world’s best docent of the zoo rated #1 in the United States by Parent’s Magazine. That zoo and that docent (Jane Rubin) are right here in Tampa Bay, at the Lowry Park Zoo (www.lowryparkzoo.com), 1101 W. Sligh Ave., Tampa, FL 33604, 813-935-8552.

As was mentioned in The Jackson, Mississippi, Zoo, where my cousin, Donna, is the veterinary technician, zoos have come a long, long, long way from the dismal, depressing dungeons of my youth.

Today’s zoo keepers are animal activists and preservationists whose purpose extends way beyond just keeping animals in captivity for the entertainment of human animals.

For instance, take a look at the Commitment to Conservation page of the Lowry Park Zoo’s website. This is where the zoo’s efforts to continually look “for ways to enhance the animals’ lives through behavioral enrichment, operant conditioning and exhibit improvements” are discussed. Also described are their significant contributions to animal conservation.

On that page are links to four important subpages:

• Conservation In The Zoo
• Conservation Regionally
• Conservation Around The World
• Conservation Recycling Program

On the first of those pages, Conservation in the Zoo, we learn of the zoo’s three goals of education, conservation and research. Their mission is to “Connect People with the Living Earth.”

They are a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) which conserves wildlife through education, research, captive breeding for reintroduction, and fund-raising to support field conservation.

There are 40 animals at the Lowry Park Zoo that are part of the AZA Species Survival Plan® (SSP) program–they are listed on the Lowry Park Zoo’s Conservation In The Zoo page.

There’s so much to recommend this Tampa attraction. Anyone coming to a convention in Tampa should take an afternoon or morning and go. Any parent or grandparent living in the area should buy passes and spend time with their children and grandchildren there. I saw many photographers there and I learned that often they buy year passes and spend many hours there photographing the animals. For the kids, there’s a few rides, of course, but the main attraction are the animals.

All the pictures in this post were taken at the Lowry Park Zoo and Jane helped me identify the animals after I’d edited the pictures so I’d be sure to get everything properly labeled. (Any errors are mine!)

“Rango,” pictured at the beginning of the post is perhaps my favorite animal there; I relate to his sense of style. I learned from Jane that every year at holiday time, the volunteers bring the animals presents which the animals love to open. I’ll have to think of a suitable gift for Rango.

Support wildlife preservation and have a good time doing it: go to the Lowry Park Zoo.

Bornean orangutan (female) “Josie” age 25 & daughter, “Hadiah” age 5	Chimpanzee (female) “Rukiyah”
Colobus monkey – Angola	Siamang : female “Haddie” & male “Cyrus” & baby “Malu.”

Ringtailed lemur – Madagascar	Golden lion tamarin (Brazil)
Bolivian grey titi monkeys female “Leap” & male “Cleve”	Yellow-footed rock wallaby
emu	petting zoo goat
African penguin feeding session	Waterbuck (safari ride)

meerkat sentinel

Grevy’s zebra & white rhino	African elephant & Hartman mountain zebra
Reticulated giraffe male “Billy Bob” & Rothschild’s giraffe male “Randle”	Shoebill stork male “Mr. Zero”
Cheetah brothers “Chaka” & “Gaheeji”	Pygmy hippo Mother “ZzaZza” & daughter “Anakiya”
Maribou stork – sunning	Okapi female “Betty.” Okapis live only in the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are so elusive that they only became known to the European world in 1901. It is the giraffes’ only relative.
Saddlebilled stork	Shoebill stork female “Binti” Hatched at Lowry Park Zoo 12/26/09. Binti is the ONLY shoebill hatched and reared by parents (without incubation or feeding intervention) anywhere in captivity in any accredited zoo.

Male giraffes (safari ride) “TangaTanga,” “Timmy” & “Benwa”

Long ago, I learned a secret that kept me writing and growing as a composer all my life: with each piece you’re learning something new about how to compose.

I was already doing this as a kid, but didn’t know it. However, as an undergraduate, I was fortunate enough to take one of the courses that a professor at the conservatory, Mr. Stanworth Beckler, offered that was a presentation of his analysis of the complete works of a specific composer–each and every piece that composer ever wrote. Those courses were obviously an effort of love on his part. Why else would someone analyze every piece someone composed?!

One semester he devoted to Igor Stravinsky, one of my very favorite composers since childhood, and I was lucky to have gotten to take that course. What a staggering quantity and variety of output Stravinsky had.

But I remember being struck about halfway through the Beckler’s course with what I imaged Stravinsky must have been thinking after each piece (and before he began the next): “No…maybe not that way. How about if I tried this!”

In other words, it dawned on me that his entire life, with each piece, Stravinsky–the undisputed master composer of the 20th Century–was learning something more about how to compose.

That thought stuck with me and I applied it to my own compositions. Alas, I wasn’t the historic talent Stravinsky was, but it did keep me composing and wanting to compose, right up to the present.

  

  

  

Digital photography has become the hobby I never really had. After a brief slump that I wrote about in I should have known better, I rekindled my enthusiasm for my hobby by applying the secret I learned long ago in the Stravinsky class: I began setting a specific learning goal for each new photography project.

The secret has worked its magic for me. It’s kept my attention directed toward the process, not the product; the intrinsic value, not some external evaluation.

This particular opportunity for learning was in photographing a new collection of jewelry by a friend whose work I’ve presented in earlier Inkwatu posts (see Arts and Crafts and Necklace on Black Velvet).

  

  

  

The primary challenge was increasing the depth of field so that parts of the necklace that were farther away from the camera were as much in focus as parts that were nearer (the necklaces were on black “necks” in front of a black velvet background so not all parts of the necklace were in the same plane).

Secondarily, I wanted to learn how to use a ring flash (a flash that is, literally, a ring around the lens) that avoids distracting shadows. The depth of field thing necessitated longer exposure times which, of course, were affected by the lighting. Plus, the color and reflections of the beads of each individual necklace photographed differently.

I learned a lot…which is to say I made a lot of mistakes. But, I kept correcting myself until I got things the way I wanted. In short, I had a lot of fun learning more about how to do my hobby.

  

  

  

Back to music and Stravinsky for a bit: a corollary of that principle that each piece was a learning experience, is that each piece is right at the edge of current proficiency. Not too far beyond that edge, or one is simply incompetent. But, not too far within it, either, or one is a hack. Walking that fine line of not quite knowing what you’re doing, taking chances, and learning the whole while, keeps your art–and your interest in it–alive.

If you’d like to see any of the necklaces close up, just click on any of the pictures in this post, or click on the following link to see a slide show of all 20 necklaces. Depending upon the resolution of your monitor, if you click on the closeup of any picture, you may be taken to an even larger closeup. I encourage you to do so; I’m proud of the detail you can see up close.

I want to learn more about taking photos with an incredibly deep depth of field. One of my absolute favorite photography sites–actually, one of my favorite sites of any sort–is Shorpy. I spend a lot of time there. Those old, old photos where everything, no matter how far away, is in perfect, razor sharp focus, just enthrall me. Take a look at this one for instance. I want to learn how to do that!

That’s the challenge for my next few (thousand?) hobby projects.