A Map to Zoo Fun: A Book for Kinley & Brooke

 

It was a roaring good time!

We met Jill and the girls at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita on March 5, the first day of their spring break. The last time we were there, Kinley was just a toddler, and Brooke hadn't made her appearance in the world yet. (Kinley was the reporter for the day on the blog post here.)

I've written several books for the girls through the years. I did the first version of a farm ABC book while Jill was still pregnant with Kinley and gave it to her at a shower. I added a farm counting book to the mix a few years later. 

But I've also done several books based on day trips we've taken together - to Rolling Hills Refuge near Salina, to Exploration Place at Wichita, to a horse farm and the Sternberg Museum at Hays, Tanganyika Wildlife Park and the Kansas State Fair. I've also done a couple from their visits to the farm, including wheat harvest and a solo visit from Brooke when Kinley was with her Ladd grandparents and cousin. When I started digging through the book shelves, I discovered 9 books! Most of them are done in rhyme, and all feature my photography.

When we were in Topeka at Easter time, Brooke brought me a couple of "our" books to read - the farm counting book and Zoobilation, a book from our Rolling Hills Zoo visit. She made my day!

As she cuddled on my lap, she asked, "Grandma, are you going to write a book about the Wichita zoo?"

Well, at the time, it wasn't in the works. I'd been in charge of a 100-year celebration for my PEO group, and I'd done a 26-page book for that, too. 

Cover of the PEO book

 

March also brought several extra days of cattle work. But how could I refuse that request? I'd certainly taken plenty of photos. And when a little girl asks so beseechingly right after wanting to read together? It didn't take much convincing!

So, a week or so later, I hit "publish" on A Zoo Map to Fun with Kinley & Brooke. In addition to my verses, I added some facts from the Sedgwick County Zoo website. The girls love the behind-the-scenes TV shows about zoos and the people who care for the animals, and I figured a few facts might make it more interesting for Kinley, too. (She also reads the National Geographic Junior magazine cover to cover.)

To read the 20 pages, you'll probably have to pull up each photo separately. It shows each individual page. The completed book hasn't arrived yet. I can hardly wait to share it with the girls!

Front cover

 

 

 

 

Back cover

Fair to Middlin'

You just never know.

My photo of Vlad the Amur Leopard at the Manhattan (KS) Zoo won grand champion in the open class division at the Stafford County Fair last week.

It wasn't even on my initial list of potential fair entries. During the year, I make notes about photos I might enter at the county fair or use for a family birthday calendar project. (Type A, anyone?!)

 

I'd quickly snapped it during a freezing cold day when we celebrated Kinley's 6th birthday at the zoo. At the time, we just wanted Vlad to pick the enrichment box the party-goers had created so we could go back to the warm building!

The up-close photo of Vlad ended up in a collage in the birthday post. But, as I was looking through photos I'd taken in the past year, I decided Vlad was more unusual than the cattle and kitties I normally photograph. What's another three bucks to print another 8 x 10? (And, I had a 60 percent discount!)

The "eyes" (Vlad's eyes, that is) had it, the photography superintendent later told me, and the judge selected it as Grand Champion. 

And it just goes to show you: Judging in one person's opinion on one day. I heard that from my parents whether it was before 4-H foods judging or a league music festival.

I'm sure there were people who looked at the purple ribbon by Vlad's photo and wondered "Why that one?" If you handed ballots to fairgoers and asked them to choose their favorite, I'm convinced that a few photos would garner more votes than others. But it certainly wouldn't be a unanimous decision.

For me, it's just fun to enter. Evidently, old habits die hard.

I've been exhibiting things at county fairs since I was 10 years old. I was a fourth grader and a member of the Lincoln Bluebirds 4-H Club. My only project my first year was "Snacks and Little Lunches," a foods and nutrition project. According to my meticulous record book, my first fair netted a blue ribbon on cookies and red ribbons on both my cupcakes and brownies.
If my 4-H story is to be believed, I had a "lot of fun." In fact, several times, I had "a lot of fun." Perhaps my descriptive writing had not yet been developed.

But, at any rate, I evidently did have "a lot of fun." Here we are ... um ... several years later, and I'm still entering exhibits at a county fair.

Even though I love to cook and bake, photography is the exhibit area I choose these days. However, I'm still connected to 4-H foods all these years later, too, since I'm 4-H foods superintendent and have been for more than 20 years.

All 4-H entries get a ribbon. But in open class divisions at the Stafford County Fair, only the 1st, 2nd and 3rd photos are selected in each class. Classes are divided into color and black and white divisions. Some of the classes were nature, people, landscape, agriculture, computer-manipulated, action, humor and human interest.

I ended up with four blues, three reds and five whites. About half of my entries didn't get ribbons at all.

This one got a blue. I took it during our trip to South Dakota last September when Randy's brother was sick. It was taken at a stream we discovered just off the highway, but the light was perfect at the time.

Another blue: I took this one at the Kansas State University greenhouses during a tour for Kansas Master Farmer/Master Farm Homemakers last March.

This computer-manipulated image got a blue. I loved the F. Scott Fitzgerald quote and used the image for an Ag Day blog post about farm wife partners.

This one, which I titled "Don't Eat With Your Mouth Full," got a red in the humor class. I snapped the photo of one of our feeder calves as we were waiting for the veterinarian to arrive last November.

This one got a red, too. Brooke was my "action" model during a playground stop during our spring break trip to Hays.

Another amateur photographer friend asked me if I had a favorite photo I'd entered this year. This one I took at the Black Hills National Cemetery near Sturgis, S.D., was definitely one of my favorites. The black and white version got a 3rd place ribbon.

The color version didn't place at all. (Obviously, I couldn't decide which I liked better, so I entered both B/W and color and let the judge decide.)

The painted lady butterfly on roadside sunflowers got a 3rd-place ribbon, too. It's an image I've put on notecards since taking the photo last September.

This computer-manipulated image also got a red ribbon. I used a poem written by May Williams Ward in 1927. For a time, she lived in Belpre - a tiny town in the county to our west. Her husband was a manager at the grain elevator there, so her poems that feature Kansas landscapes are my favorites. I used this for a blog illustration.

My little hide-and-seek calf earned me another white ribbon.

This photo I took at our church last December was my black and white computer-manipulated entry. Part of the edits were done with the camera before I ever downloaded the image. It got a 3rd place ribbon, too.

This photo of Randy was one of my favorite entries. I took it last October when I took supper to the field and he was filling the wheat drill. I liked it enough that I made a 16- by 20-inch canvas that represents autumn in my "Seasons" display in our living room. However, the judge only gave it a 3rd place. I also entered it in the Stafford County Economic Development contest in the "commerce" category and got an "honorable mention" ... and a little prize money.

I also used my photos for my two entries in the Stafford County Fair's Arts and Crafts department. I entered two books in the online scrapbooking class. Though I don't think that's a particularly accurate description of what the books are, it's the category that fits.

 

 The book I made for Randy for Christmas last year got the blue ribbon.

So many times these days, the photos we take on our cameras or phones never get printed.

I use my photos for blog posts, so I do edit photos and use them.

But the books put the photos in a more accessible form.

A book I made for Kinley and Brooke after a spring break trip was 3rd in the online scrapbooking class. 

Sometimes, I write blog posts about adventures with the girls in rhyme. Later, I put the rhymes and photos in books and give a copy to each of the girls (and keep one for myself, of course).

Since I'm not a quilter or seamstress, maybe these books will provide a legacy of sorts.

I never bring in enough prize money to cover the cost of photo mats, enlargements, book production, etc. So why do it?

People have been experiencing fairs since the days of the Roman empire (At least that's what Wikipedia - the authority of all things - told me). I suppose there's a little rush to being chosen "best" at something, satisfying that little kernel of competitiveness in the human spirit.

But I truly think it's about helping to make sure fairs last another 2,000 years. Fairs give people an excuse to come together, to visit with people they don't see everyday.

It brings volunteers together to work on something that's bigger than what any one person could accomplish on their own.

It's about being part of a community. I'll give that a purple ribbon any day.