Over the years, we’ve been fortunate enough to have the means to take our family on some solid trips and vacations. But in all honesty, looking back on what we’ve done and where we’ve been, it’s pretty clear that we screwed up. Instead of teaching our kids about all the world has to offer, and leading them to find lives filled with curiosity and exploration, we took the easy way out. It pains me a little to look at a list of trips we’ve taken, and even more so to list some of them here. We’ve been to Disney World five times, Universal Studios twice, and Busch Gardens on a weekend for kicks. As a result, my kids have grown up thinking of “The Mummy” ride as the height of adventure travel.
So when my wife’s parents surprised my kids on their 13th birthday and announced plans to take them on a 10 day trip to the Galapagos Islands, I had two conflicting emotions. I was thrilled at the idea of such an incredible experience being given to my young and growing children. And I was pissed that I didn’t get to go with them.
They went this past December, and had an incredible time. They returned with great stories, visiting a corner of the world they had truly never imagined.
My daughter had begun expressing an interest in photography over the last year, so this trip was perfect for her, like a living photo lab. She took hundreds of pictures, almost filling the memory card on the digital camera she brought with her. As soon as she returned home, she practically ran to the computer to load the images on our hard drive, and gathered my wife and I to run through the unfiltered slideshow.
Admit it: you normally experience a wave of dread when a relative suggests that the entire family sit through their 90 minute presentation of vacation photos, especially when roughly every other picture represents some variation of Aunt Edna smiling in front of a church, ancient ruin or landmark that you’ve seen on a thousand postcards (do they still have postcards, or is everything pretty much a selfie at this point?). But these pictures were actually pretty good. Part of the charm of visiting the Galapagos Islands is how close you can get to the natural habitat and creatures, and my daughter’s pictures showed some pretty fantastic images.
As she flipped through the photos, there were some great shots of sea lions…
…crabs…
…iguanas…
…and amazing giant turtles…
The Islands are known for attracting huge populations of seabirds, and based on the time it took to flip through her files I think my daughter managed to take a picture of each and every one of them…
I have to admit I was becoming a little tired of the bird pics, which were getting a little repetitive. But then, just as my eyes began to glaze over, it happened. This shot appeared, filling our computer screen in all its glory:
I stared at the photo for a few seconds, speechless. Then, because I have the mind and class of a 6 year old, I burst out laughing.
There’s something perfect about this picture. First, it’s about as unadulterated a glimpse into the bird defecation process as I’ve ever seen. Isn’t one purpose of nature photography to expose us to a side of the animal kingdom that we aren’t normally privy to? Maybe it’s been too long since my National Geographic subscription lapsed, but I’m fairly sure I’ve never seen a bird’s…well, what would you call it? I just checked Wikipedia, which wants to tell me it’s a “cloaca”. So there you have it. Thanks, internet.
Also, take a close look at the bird’s eye in this picture. There’s something knowing in those eyes, as if the bird was saying, “yep, that’s right, you wanted a picture, and I’ll give you one”. This bird’s got attitude. And I like it.
So of all of the hundreds and hundreds of photos taken during their incredible adventure, it’s the one of the rear end of a bird during the poop process that will be the one we’re going to remember. And unless we manage to catch Mickey in a similarly compromised position, I don’t think we’ll be able to top it.
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