I feel like this hippo must be who taught my first boyfriend how to kiss, because I swear, this was his exact technique.

It’s uncanny, really...

You know, photographing hippos is it's own special kind of fun. Even more so than many other photography situations, it feels unabashedly like a game. You basically spend huge chunks of your time, just staring out over still, listless water... watching...waiting... and wondering.... where are they going to pop up next?

Then they pop up!

They sometimes do it with a flourish of splashing and noises and it's all so exciting and you rush to get focused on them and fire off a bunch of photos...

And then almost quicker than it began, it's all over. They go back underwater, and you're back to looking at still nothingness for another eternity. You're back to scoping the water for any sign of a nostril or a forehead and wishing, "Why won't y'all just stay above water more! You hippos are very tedious animals!"

But you always have to watch what you wish for, because when you do happen to find them all above water, they just float there in a big, boring, web of entanglement, and do absolutely nothing.

After about five minutes of watching them do this (aka, nothing), you'll be begging to go back to the playful disappearing game of pop-up. Anything's better than watching them nap in a motionless web. At least pop-up is intermittently interesting, web-napping is consistently dull.

Yawn...

I'm getting sleepy too, actually...

And yet, if I hadn't been there with my camera, all but asleep myself with these lazy, boring hippopotami, then I would have never been around to learn something I never knew before. The exciting thing I learned -- when this mother unexpectedly waddled up to the water's edge with her baby -- is that baby hippos are surprisingly cute! I never knew this before, but they are! Look at this pudgy little guy!

I don't know what I pictured them looking like, but it definitely wasn't this adorable. And then to top it all off, she swam out into the open water with him and had some unbelievably tender moments --all above water, I might add -- and now I'm in love with hippos.

Who knew.

****************************

I hear you, Hippo. I'm done. C'mon everyone, let's go.

We all want to go LEARN ABOUT GAYS AND LIONS now, anyways, don't we?

Yep, you're seeing it correctly, it's not either/or, it's all one link. Gays and lions, I've grouped my prides together.

You know you're interested...