Sheep Portraits

The sheep bed down around the barn at night and this morning took their time about moving to the pasture.Here are some sheep who posed for portraits (and, for those of you who care, some ancestry info). 5-year old Moon (bide a wee Yuri x Hillside Luna's Harvest) Yearling, Sophia  (Kenleigh's Matrix x Meridian Jazz) Yearling, Cascade (Meridian Miller x Meridian Sierra) Yearling, Mae (Meridian Miller x Meridian Mary). She must have been looking in the mirror when she wrote the number on her tag? 5-month old BFL cross who I am keeping. No name yet. (Faulkner x Dazzle) 5-month old lamb who may stay here. (Meridian Miller x Meridian Vicki)  5-month old lamb who I want to keep (Meridian Hendrix x Meridian Alison) Someone is hiding behind the dallisgrass.  It's the wether, Jimmy...who I may just rename to Jake, because I tend to call all wethers Jake.This is two year old Onyx, a BFL cross.  This is one of the newest members of the flock. (Meridian Miller x Meridian Donna.) Six lambs were born in July at the State Fair. This is her brother. This is a gorgeous lilac ram lamb (Meridian Alex x Meridian Phyllis), just what I've been waiting for....except those horns on his right are growing together and his horn set will be horribly asymmetrical. He won't be registrable. Out to the pasture. "Mom!""MOM !!!"  

Cute Lambs

Lambing is over and I have 76 lambs. Here are some cuties.

Moms and Babies on a Spring Morning

 Sweetie  Alison Mud Ranch's Ginseng Kreutzer Farms Kyra Lulu with triplets Mary EarsSonata Some of these ewes are for sale. You can see details on the website.

Photographic Challenges

This is the year that I am determined to get those perfect jumping lamb photos. I have posted some others here and in other posts. I welcome any advice from you photographers out there. My lens info is at the end of this post.  Too darn many lambs in the way.The lambs are most active in the evening when there is lower light. I am shooting with a larger aperture and therefore more shallow depth of field. Notice the lamb in focus is not the one that is jumping. In addition, those black lambs are hard to photograph in detail.  More lambs in the way. Lambs in the way AND depth of field issues. Same problems. And more lambs in the way. Focal length issues again. Lambs facing the wrong way. Focal length and shutter speed issues. I think I got this one on depth of field. Too bad the lamb is facing the wrong way. Sort of OK but needs a faster shutter speed to really get it. Also the black one lying down is distracting. This photo probably has the fewest issues.The running lamb photos have similar challenges. These photos were all taken with my Nikon 40 mm f 2/8 lens to take advantage of the larger aperture but that gives me the more shallow depth of field. My other lens is the 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6. Any recommendations?

More Leaping Lambs

This is why I get distracted at chore time.

Fifty Lambs So Far

I talked to a friend of mine today and she asked what has happened since I wrote about Marilyn's fleece in the post about a week ago. Hmmm. I guess it's been about 40 more lambs here for a total of 50. I think there are about a dozen still to lamb. Here are some photos and you can go to YouTube for videos of lambing and lambs playing. Meridian Loretta x Meridian Hendrix Meridian Jane x Meridian Miller Twin to the last one.Meridian Jazz with triplets sired by Meridian Miller.I'm not sure what happened here. This is less than half a lamb at 3.8 pounds. This lamb was up and nursing when I found it and hasn't needed any help. It's the smallest lamb I've ever had here.   These are 5 of the 6 yearlings that I kept from last year's lamb crop. They sure look different than a year ago.

Loretta's lambs

  This lamb is missing his Jacob facial markings, but I still like these photos. He was on his feet and walking in less than 10 minutes. The twin has all the right spots. You can watch their birth in this video.

Mary Had a Little Lamb…and then Another

I have been anxiously awaiting lambs. Athena started us off early by lambing last week, but there has been nothing since. Mary was calling for lambs all morning and she finally got her wish. Others came to investigate.  I moved Mary and her ewe lamb inside where she had her second lamb, a big ram. It will be a busy few weeks.