After my wife and I exited the excellent reptilian exhibits, we found ourselves in an unexpected exotic environment filled with excitement!
We had walked around the aquarium and met some seahorses and starfish in the first installment of the Tennessee Aquarium series. Then we watched giant river rats, swam with alligators, and found a turtle doing stand-up comedy in the second installment. Now it was time to check out the seasonal exhibits atop the Ocean Journey building. Only this time, our journey was going to take us into the world of some dry-land creatures.
This is what we saw...
We reached the top of the escalators and stepped into a warm and sunny world. I saw a small furry animal high on a ledge at the back of the first exhibit. It was some sort of small, dog-like thing.
He spotted me and appeared to be saying something...
"Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer."
It was a good suggestion. A little blurry, but it really captured the brief moment we had together.
I already knew what these next animals were! They're stripe-tailed rock monkeys! I read an article about them in the National Geographic magazine back in the 80s. I retain knowledge very well.
This one preferred sitting in a fake tree. He probably knew it wasn't real though.
"Hey, guys. Check out my tail!"
What do these guys see? Should I be worried?
Oh, great...now I'm worried.
This guy really just wanted to eat. That's my kind of monkey right there.
And this guy just wanted to play with the jugs. That's my kind of monkey right there.
"Guys. For real. Check it out. My tail. Pretty cool, isn't it?... Right???... Guys???"
We moved on from the needy monkeys and entered an enchanted and quite humid forest of insects. But they were the good kind of insects...
Butterflies!
They were all shapes, colors and sizes, but the Indigos Giganticus were pretty hard to miss. And they also liked posing everywhere, which didn't hurt their chances of being photographed.
"Hey! Look! I'm on a sign! Take my picture!"
"Hey! Look! I'm on your camera bag! Take a picture!"
"Hey! Look! I'm on a picture of me! Look! It's me! Take a picture of me...ON ME!"
And here we have a butterfly on a wood hand rail.
This butterfly is on a plant. It's an exotic plant. And an exotic butterfly. What a combo!
Here is an orange and black butterfly on green leaf.
Orange and black butterfly on green leaf, Part Deux.
Butterfly on a stone bench. Maybe it was tired?
Two butterflies fighting for food. Things were pretty intense for a moment. Can you feel the hostility?
These friendly neighbors decided to share. As it turned out, there was plenty of food for everyone.
I couldn't tell if this one was a boy or a girl. Color schemes can be confusing.
Black on white.
White on black. On white and green.
What's this?
It's a bird!
It's a plane!
No! It's...
Oh...nope. Sorry. It's just another butterfly.
That's all for episode three! We'll wrap things up in Part 4, coming soon!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the photos. If you have any critiques or advice on photography, let us know in the comments. I don't have a true macro lens, so forgive the lack of fine details on the butterfly close-ups. Perhaps I'll get a good lens for those photos someday.
All photos were taken by me with my Canon 6D.
Sweet butterflies, colours are great and such a large variety
all the butterflies are very beautiful and I really like them.
I always follow your post, and thank you for sharing your adventure to us all @ats-david
Great pictures! Those lemurs are pretty crazy. Their tails are so long compared to their bodies.
The lemur is a wonderful animal ... with those eyes ... But butterflies, they are perfect models ... Not easy to photograph in all their beauty. Good job
Today there is something wrong with me,but after read you post, i find small animals also live happy, i shoud be happy too ,thanks
I enjoyed reading this post and looking at the pictures! The format is great too, just the right amount of writing and images! Such beautiful butterfly pictures!
Thanks for the animal post @ats-david .... only problem is everytime I see a stripped tail monkey (or whatever resembling a ringtailed lemur), I think of King Julien....damn Dreamworks meme!
I've followed and Up-voted you!
Hiii,,,,@ ats-david looking so beautiful different colours of butterflies.u have excellant choice of photography.original and creative asa wel as great article
😃😃😃 Thank u & best of luck
That photoggraphhy skills and those buttterflllıes daaaaamnnn you are true man of art
A man of art. A man of the people. A man among men.
Hi @ats-david enjoyed reading your post, the monkey tail was something else and I've tried to get butterfly photos, but I've never seen so many in one place like that. When you were talking for the butterfly I was wondering what its voice sounded like. LOL
What voice did you come up with?
I was thinking the donkey in Shrek! ha ha
today i am birthday.
nice pics, that's some hot tail.
Congratulation @bethela :)
Yes, very nice picture and beautiful animals
Successful life tips for you my friends
https://steemit.com/life/@devdas/how-to-be-succesfull-in-life
The stripe-tailed monkey looks to have same stripes with lemurs.The butterflies shots are outstanding, never seen most of them before too.
Hmm...maybe those were actually ring-tailed lemurs at the aquarium. I don’t even know what’s real anymore.
fantastic part 3. which picture do you like most of all parts?
I’m not sure. I haven’t seen Part 4 yet!
too bad, me 2, lol... I will wait and ask you later again..
Love the commentary :)
Amazing photography of monkeys and various colors Butterflies you sharing @ats-david. This is really interesting geographical article, better important to wildlife lovers. I read your past part 1 & 2 episode. Don`t worry you have great camera eye and nicely taken photos. Thats well enough for us.
Resteemed your post.
So you visited Jerry's Family I see from the first visuals - know that face structure! Glad you did stay strong enough to take other photos and create this post which is a killer of this platform - a top one lol
That's insulting to the monkeys. They aren't Gollum-like at all.
A top post for a top gentleman? And...I killed the platform???
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Lol @ats-david you are a rocker, my German English wanted to express with the comment that your content is very good (killer hot content, sick, awesome, brilliant).
YOU do no harm to the platform while others do
Beutiful pictures @ats-david. I love animals
Yesterday I visited the Zoo Aquarium of Madrid and I liked It.
Did you take any pictures?
I made a post yesterday with the Bengal Tigers
https://steemit.com/spanish/@davor27/entrantes-tigres-de-bengala-en-zoo-aquarium-de-madrid
Aww look at the little bugger on the rock. He seems less than thrilled lol.
Monkeys! Whoa that tail tho...
Those butterflies have stunning colors! Great shots!
I have a cheapo macro lens. I love it and use it often, but would one day like to get a better one.
Real photography like as a art work @ats-david. As i told before you`re real animal lovers. These image create a new world.looking so beautiful different colors of butterflies. Monkeys are awesome so. Need to protect them. Love our nature, then will give love automatically from nature to us.
Great article.
I think I liked the last monkey with the really cool long tail and the third butterfly (blue) the best.
Thanks for sharing your adventure.
Great post. Felt like I was in the park with you. Fantastic photos esp the butterflies. Well done.
Very nice imagine of nature worlds. Its our winds, they are our life and world. Butterflies decorate nature lot. Totally awesome post you sharing sir.
Resteemed your post.
Beautiful pictures,I'm in love with butterflies they are so beautiful !
I find butterflies fascinating probably because they've transmuted into something beautiful, and that gives hope to us. My wife and I spent an afternoon in a butterfly pavilion near us, and not one butterfly spoke the whole afternoon. I was happy to go home and talk to my cat. At least he listens and doesn't flit around :)
Yeah, that's because butterflies can't talk. I bet you guys looked pretty silly out there trying to listen to them. I'm surprised you're not in the loony bin right now.
Wait a minute...
Your cat doesn't flit? How disappointing! Is it too late to get a refund?
Well, I forgot to say he talks - he's a Muse Cat - I wrote a lot of stories about him lol
wow you are very talented with the camera <3
i really enjoyed the photos! specially this one
i adore them <3
good post
great post
nice photography.. beautiful pictures!
hay bro
my friends follow me
https://steemit.com/@tisko
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Hi there, @ats-david Beautiful shots. Thoroughly enjoyed reading. We are from The Curator. (A post style magazine on Steemit) We do curating for informative, creative, entertaining, yet undervalued posts. We love your fantastic post. And we feel that it is undervalued. We would like to share it in our magazine. But first, we would like to ask for your permission to add your post to our next issue, With a picture from your post. That we will use as a thumbnail, We will share a portion of the post gifts. With the posts that we share in the upcoming issue. If you agree to this. Please let us know below this comment. At your earliest convenience.
Thank you. PostHuntress, @the-curator
And keep on Steeming your fantastic posts.
Yeah, sure. Be my guest. If you want, you can just use the thumbnail image from this post for yours.
Thanks for considering me! I appreciate it!
Hi, @ats-david You are very welcome. It is our pleasure.
We will let you know as soon as we post the issue.
Have a fabulous day/evening.
PostHuntress @the-curator
Hey @ats-david, Sorry for adding your post late we just posted the issue with your blog post here. Thank you for letting us include it really appreciate it.
Wow Such great pictures I really liked this post its such a joy reading and watching. I really loved it. Hatss off.!
Amazing pictures........👍👍
Excellent photography! Perfect click @ats-david
Alright brother that looks like a good time there I'm sure you guys enjoyed it thanks for the story.
nice post. upvoted
thanks,sir
Well sir your post drive my attention and when I open it is actually makes me amazed to see such a great photos of wild life . All your photos r show there finiest quality . And it also shows you r using very well equipped equipment to capture these movements. I have have to appreciate your work . Thanks for such a great post.
Nice pictures and beautiful animals. I like it very much.I follow you. Thanks for sharing
https://steemit.com/@ats-david
Awesome article! I just started my own. It's about my journey across the world over 4 years! Check it out! I hope you enjoy it.
Successful life tips for you my friends
https://steemit.com/life/@devdas/how-to-be-succesfull-in-life
Congratulations @ats-david!
Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following category:
nic i like the pic and the way you click from different angle
and the most beautiful pics of butterfly awesome
In general i don't like Zoos because animals are forced to live outside their ecosystem.
But here I don't have the same feeling. I feel happy looking at these animals :-)
wow nice photography
Terrific photos. Enjoyed the butterflies. You must have felt like a kid in a candy store with all those butterflies at your fingertips.
The ringtail rock monkey might be one of the most vicious animals in the entire world wide jungle. They live in the most remote areas of the known amazon, and live off the eggs of the great extinct water rhinoceros. When you are dealing with one of these dangerous little creatures you better have a camera that can take a beating.
Happy shooting!
the picture is very interesting I love it
Hi @ats-david .. The photos in this article, really talk, and I almost hear those voices through your photos. :D
Looks like one of the monkeys there, very happy to show off its tail to visitors.