Can you believe January is o-v-e-r?! Didn’t the year just begin yesterday?

Now that the pesky start of the semester out of the way, maybe, I can make time for other important things, like blog posts, poetry, and photography.

It’s been months since I shared one of my monochrome swaps.  The latest–completed earlier this month–was ‘animals in monochrome” in the “A Thousand Words” group on swap-bot.  Grstamping, my partner, sent an envelope full of black and white goodies that someone quickly claimed for his collection of animal photos. Seriously. I was left with the note about the photos. I was “allowed” to scan them, at least.

Grstamping has been focusing on photographing animals lately, so she had a lot to share.  She sent a number of aquatic animals– [Click an image for a closer look]

“Clown Fish” by Grstamping

“Fish in Gold” by Grstamping

“Shark” by Grstamping

“Octopus Tentacles” by Grasping

And birds–

“Canadian Goose” by Grstamping

“Bald Eagle” by Grstamping

“Dove” by Grstamping

And cute rodents–

“Black Squirrel” by Grstamping

“Chipmunk” by Grstamping

I’m torn between the chipmunk and the octopus tentacles as my favorite.  It’s hard not to love “cute,” but the tentacles are interesting.

I shared photos of our sweet-natured donkey and horse, Esau and Barnabas.  They’re always game for a photo opportunity.

“Say Heehaw, Esau”

“Smile Pretty for the Camera”

“Animals” was actually the seventh swap in the monochrome series hosted in our little group.  I’ll get around to posting “Trees in Monochrome” and “Clouds in Monochrome” eventually.

If you want to see the earlier monochrome posts, click the links below:

• Playing with Black and White: Flowers
• Playing with Black and White: A Touch of Color
• Playing with Black and White: Buildings
• Fun with Teddy Bears in Monochrome

Happy Last Day of January!