Family of Four (May be a graphic post to some…you’ve been warned!)

There is a lot to say for this post. First, we did their family session at the beach last year and it went really perfect. Mom raved about those photos so going into this shoot I was a little nervous about living up to the last session. To start it off they drove from over an hour away and when they got within a few minutes away they made a quick stop. On their way to the car their youngest son tripped and literally landed on his face on the cement. When we all met up he was still quite upset (very understandable…poor thing)! We started playing and eventually he joined in and it seemed like it was all going to turn around but next….he was running down a hill with a kite flowing behind him and fell. And he was upset again. Then he was happy again and he was swinging and he slipped out of the front of the swing and as he was getting up it hit the back of his head (it was a rubber swing and not moving very much but still..)So, needless to say his day wasn’t going very well and in turn poor mom was stressed because the session wasn’t going as she had imagined it. Next we decided to go feed the ducks. From this point on things started to improve as far as taking pictures but there was another surprise coming!

And this is where it may be graphic to anyone that is squeamish about large rodents with long tails. WARNING: pictures at the bottom of blog post!

Just when you think you’re feeding a group of cute ducks…

you look up and right in front of you and out of nowhere appears a non-duck! A non-duck with whiskers and a very long tail!

Apparently, he or she is fed a lot because it was not scared and came right up for its share of bread.

At first glance you think you’re looking at a Beaver (of which I’ve never seen in person…don’t even know if they’re in this area…probably not but since I saw a bear crossing the road sign near Destin, Florida this year you never know. That’s a whole other story) but then we quickly realized it was a Nutra Rat. And it had friends. We spotted 5. And when we moved down to a dock over the water most of them swam their way over to where the ducks were going. Two of the younger ones were even fighting in the water. And another fact in case you’re interested (I’m sure you’re not but I’m going to tell you anyway:) is that their back feet are webbed just like a duck. So, the lesson to learn here is that when you’re going to feed ducks that walk up the bank from the water you need to watch every.single.thing that walks up for bread.