Death of a Strawberry I took this picture about a month ago when I was playing around with the effects of flash. Jodi doesn't do much when she sees a camera. So I gave her a strawberry to keep her occupied. My experiment didn't last very long. She started eating the berry (Oh the carnage!) the flash started going off in her face and she threw the strawberry to the floor. This was the best of the few shots I got. I was close enough to her that the background came out almost black. That's the effect I was going for. So I touched up the background in PSE to make it more consistent. by Jacci. Hopefully, tomorrow, we will be back to posting current pictures. I'm seeing the neurosurgeon today. [ Additional note by david: There was no photoshopping to make selective color - Jodi is an African Gray (all gray but her tail, which is red)... ]

The Dogs of Espada Today, I'm having a motivational problem. (I can't move my neck very well.) So I thought I'd share a photo I took a couple of months ago. Espada is one of the old Spanish missions in San Antonio. When I recently visited Espada, I noticed a couple of dogs following me around the grounds like loyal old friends. The one in this picture was disturbingly thin. A park ranger explained to me that Espada a is place where people abandon dogs that they no longer want. All of the park rangers have taken dogs home over the years. But the dogs keep coming and many of them die of starvation. This dog broke my heart. Notice how thin her body is in the background. Unless somebody took her home, I'm sure she didn't live long after I took her portrait.

I'm not sure why this picture touches me. You can't even see the little girl's face. Yet the moment seems so personal. She seems to be in her own world oblivious to everything around her.