here's a llama, there's a llama.

A few weeks ago, my little sister went on a Kindergarten field trip to a llama and alpaca farm near our house. Today, my mom took my siblings and I back there for their "Shearing Day." 

It was a really cold, rainy day, especially for late May. I was freezing even in my sweater and jeans. But it was really fun nonetheless.

Note the rain on my lens. I'm such a horrible camera owner. I even had a clear filter in my camera bag...

 The barn was sort of dim for my camera, and I discovered for the first time the true beauty of Exposure Compensation. Also Shutter Priority mode. I started off in Manual (I've been reading Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and I feel guilty every time I shoot in Auto now), but since I was going around snapping a bajillion photos of llamas, I soon switched off to SP. Which made me feel less guilty than Auto, but   still helped me to get the shots I wanted, even in the dim light.

Mary found a new friend.

 The people who own the farm and the workers were all really nice. We even ate lunch at their house!

Alpaca fur is the softest thing ever. 

 This lady has about 100 llamas and alpacas, and she knows them all by name. That takes talent.

 Aww :). This picture would have been sooo cute if my brother hadn't stuck his shoulder in there right then....

 I love how skinny the alpaca's necks were after they were shorn (sheared?).

 About right here my camera battery died, and so I missed a bunch of great photo ops. It was killing me. I was literally jumping up and down in pain. And saying things like, "Man, I need my camera.", and "Oh my gosh, why did it have to run out of battery?", and "WHY didn't I charge it last night?." Over. and over. I probably annoyed the people in my general vicinity to no end.

 I went on a walk around the farm with Ellen, and I just about died, I wanted to take pictures so badly. So eventually I went to the car, got out my camera, did the whole "shake the battery" trick, and managed to get a few more shots out of my camera.

 Oh yeah, and I also managed to hurl the battery into a mud puddle with all my force while I was trying to shake it. Hehe.

I almost died when I saw this and didn't have my camera. Almost fell over dead.  Right there in  the gravel and mud. I'm so glad shaking the battery worked...

 But the most important thing that happened today: I decided once and for all that I am going to marry a cowboy. :) And live on a farm. I've always sort of thought of myself as a city kid, and I do adore the city (and don't really know for sure if I could survive too far away from it) but I did spend a lot of my childhood living in the country, and I've got a little bit of country girl living somewhere inside me.

Oh, and there's bonus points if this cowboy happens to be Australian.

Which do you prefer, the city or the country?

-Stacey