Yesterday we went up to Tampa to see the production "Walking With Dinosaurs". Our 9 year old grandson is a dinosaur fanatic, has been for a number of years, and he was the one that cajoled his mother into getting the tickets for this performance or exhibition.
It was well worth the trip and the money invested in the tickets.
Though I made a valiant attempt at photography throughout the performance, alas, in the darkness of the arena and the fact that the creatures and our "archaeological/anthropologist guide" were in constant motion, most of my shots were either too dark or too blurry to bother posting. Also, true to Murphy's Law, my camera batteries decided to expire during the last part of the performance, so out of all the many photos I was lucky to salvage these few.
Photo below...The shows archaeologist guide takes you back through eons of time, he also seems to move around a great deal and in most of my photos he appears as little more than a smudge.
Of course there were some in the audience that thought they would be seeing Animatronics that looked identical to those in the movie "Jurassic Park". Get real folks, trying to create a full scale completely robotic dinosaur that walks on its own would be a monumental accomplishment. In the world of robotics we are still struggling to create a small human size robot that can perform the simple task of walking. Have no idea just how many we've come up with but only one comes to mind and that is the Japanese robot named for Isaac Asimov. Asimov, one of our great science fiction writers, wrote many novels about robots such as "I Robot", he also imagined the "positronic brain" that most sci-fi robots employ (Star Treks' Data is one fine example).
Photo below...Here again our guide is a blur as he attempts to step back and away from a lumbering "whatever-asurous". If my grandson were here he could tell me the names of all the dinosaurs in these photos, but since he is in school right now and I am not about to start an in depth Internet search of "name that dino", I will leave their identities in your capable hands.
Photos below...some of the sets in this production were bold, vivid and beautiful
Okay so now that I've digressed, let's get back on track. In "Walking With Dinosaurs" the creatures are life size and, in my point of view, very realistic, considering what they are, mechanical creatures manipulated from within by humans. All-in-all I thought the effect was awesome and the performance outstanding. Our grandson wanted to stay and see it again so that endorsement speaks volumes !
Photos below...assorted dinosaurs...some in focus, others horribly out of focus...how do you ask a dinosaur to please stand still for a photo ?
Photos below...and then there were those that flew.
My family and I, without a doubt, totally enjoyed this production of "Walking With Dinosaurs" and I would recommend it to all who harbor that child like wonder and awe over these huge, magnificent creatures who reigned over this ancient time and planet for a few hundred million years. Humanity should be so luck !
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wow!! this looks so interesting and you did a great job with the photos.
ReplyDeleteOh it looks like you had a lot of fun :)
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about the giveaway, people always show up and I hear jewelry is the number one seller on Etsy :)
Hope all is well in Florida, have a great day, regards, T. :)
Heehee, like your grandson, I too was a dino freak as a kid and they still fascinate me. For a while I wanted to be an archaeologist and go dig up bones in hot desert regions. Is that a dream of his? Looks like maybe you saw either a brachiosaurus or barosaurus (the long necked one), stegosaurus, a raptor of some variety and of course t-rex. Don't know what the armored one is though, will have to look that one up! Or have your grandson do a guest post because now I'm curious, haha. Looks & sounds like you all had a great time!
ReplyDeleteJulie - Thanks for the encouraging words, I really struggled with those photos and used my photo editing tool to its utmost abilities. I know I must have deleted a couple of dozen pictures that were way too dark to salvage or that were just a big blur.
ReplyDeleteT@Poppyplace - It was a lot of fun. I'll get to work on that giveaway ! I'm sure the first one or two usually are lackluster.
Jenn - Thanks for some dino-fication, I wouldn't know a brachiosaurus from tickle-me-elmosaurus ! =D
The armor plated one was really cool and our "guide" said that the dangerous knob at the end of its tail weighed about 150 lbs. It was designed like a tank ! But yes you're so right we all had a great time.
Oh Jenn, forgot to answer your question. Our grandson Chandler is forever changing his mind about what he wants to be, at 9 years old that is most understandable. At this time he still wants to be a fireman like his daddy.
ReplyDeleteWow.. looks like a lot of fun! My niece would hyperventilate in excitement there... she love dinos! ;)
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