Giraffes are insincere…?

Originally uploaded by cce_photography.


Clearly this giraffe takes issue with the lyrics to that Simon & Garfunkel song. Note the sincerity inherent in his wrinkled brow.

The giraffe’s at the Philadelphia Zoo are particularly lovely. Okay, I don’t have a lot of giraffe experiences to compare to, but the Philly giraffes are great. There are 3 of them wandering about in their enclosure one of which, Puzzles, has a growth on his neck that looks rather like a goiter. (Puzzles, while sweet and lovely, is not pictured here but he’s the only one whose name I know.) The keepers are training him to walk into the x-ray machine voluntarily so that they can begin treatment on his rather pronounced problem without undue stress. If I were Puzzles I’m not sure I’d trust the keepers.

Part of what attracts me to giraffes is their natural grace and beauty. For such a tall and large animal they move with astounding fluidity even when running. Plus they have some of the most expressive faces! Did you know that the giraffe only has 7 cervical vertebrae? Yes, that’s the same number as humans. I’m sure I would not be as graceful if I had so few points of articulation of such height. Giraffes are the tallest of all land animals, unsurprisingly, and those beautiful eyelashes protect their eyes from dust and wind. They looked pretty content in the mild weather too.

And my weakness to giraffes’ charms may also have something to do with a certain giraffe stuffed animal I’ve had since forever that had a zipper pocket for a music box. I came upon the little guy over the holidays when, as promised, I did some weeding in my closet at my parents’ house. He still lives there, bagged with several friends. He’s still soft and love-worn and the zipper is still stiff as it ever was. His head is quite oversized for his body and he has the prettiest eyes, though they too have taken some wear over the years… and years.

In other news, from the my closet in Maine I pulled photographs from a trip to Austria/Germany/Czech Republic from college and the slides from my year in Italy from high school. In the interest of getting the highest quality scans for minimum investment (so that I don’t have to rescan all this stuff in the next 5 years), I’m looking for a fabulous scanner that will handle prints, slides and film. I have not purchased a scanner in … um… well, the last one I bought was SCSI. If you don’t remember SCSI, just laugh at me for being archaic and keep reading. If you do remember SCSI, commiserate with me and keep reading.

Currently 2 Epson scanners are at the top of my list: Epson Perfection V350 Photo Scanner ($145) and Epson Perfection V700 Photo Scanner 6400DPI 4.0 DMAX ($519). The V350 comes well recommended but I’m wondering if the extra DPI from the V700 is worth it to get archival quality scans. I really do not want to re-scan this stuff later in life.

Does anyone have any opinions, recommendations, etc. when it comes to slide-capable scanners?

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