Close enough

I was driving in the southern of Estonia one evening when I saw this roe deer come into a pasture. I stopped the car next to a forest after the field and walked back. The deer was slowly crossing a pasture with hay balls on it towards a wheat field. You never know with wild animals how they react to you and how good they can sense or smell you so I kept close to the edge of the pasture to blur my shape among the trees. The deer soon stepped into the wheat field and disappeared from view since the wheat was so tall. I could only see him when he lifted his head. I ran quickly but quietly to the other side of the pasture and stood by the wheat. Humans have a much larger footprint than deer so I hesitated to step into the wheat field at first, don't want to ruin other people's food source. The deer was totally oblivious to me so I thought that I wouldn't get a better opportunity to get closer and coughed a few times. He must have heard me but paid no attention at all. So I stepped into the wheat field and started walking slowly towards him.

When he lifted his head I stopped ( no matter what strange position I could have been in) and continued walking again when he feasted on the wheat. I was clearly visible in the yellow wheat but I noticed he was a young last year's calf so I was in luck - he didn't fear me. The wind was in a perfect direction and the sun was just ideally between soft clouds. There were so many horseflys that we both had a struggle getting them off.
At the end I was standing approx 10 meters from him when he finally decided that it's close enough :) I only noticed it's a he afterwards when I was looking at the pics from the camera, there were small dark circles were his horns will soon start to grow. If he was this cute as a youngster then I can't imagine what a handsome guy he will be next year! :)

This "wink" is so great that I think it would look really good as a postcard so if you have a custom text that you think would be good to put on this card just let me know and I would be happy to make the card for you!

Meet my friend

Something totally different for you this time. I want to introduce you to my friend who is partly to blame why I am so in to earrings now. She is a very talented artist, her paintings are amazing and she also makes jewelry. She is a very fun person to be with but I guess you will figure that out from this interview :)

Blog: http://www.5erg.com
Etsy shop: http://5erg.etsy.com
DeviantArt gallery: http://doodlewithgluegun.deviantart.com/gallery

Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Silja Erg, a biology student at the moment. I love painting, drawing and doing crafts. My two most recent favorite crafts are making bead jewelry and needle felting.

Where do you live?
I live in South Estonia.

What do you like?
I like when I wake up really early on holidays, so I can have a nice long day ahead of me. It doesn't happen too often though. I like learning new stuff.I like practical things, but I guess there are exceptions.
Also I like rock music, carrot juice and painting. Sounds like a party to me!

What don't you like?
When people pretend they don't understand something in sake of "not going there".
When people assume you can't take the truth or patronize you.

How big is your family?
There is six of us.

Tell me the most exciting thing you did this summer.
It had to be the bungee jump. I wasn't scared then but now when I look at someone jumping on Youtube, I get this hollow feeling in my stomach. It's weird to step on air from 80m high crane. It's just weird. And the next most exciting thing followed in a couple of hours - I saw Guano Apes performing live!

If you could hold one charity event, for what would it be?
Probably something local, not for the world peace or anything like that.
I hate to see news about people mistreating animals. Maybe organize an event where we beat up everyone who has tortured animals? Yeah...that would totally be in the spirit of charity...
I guess we could go a more humane path and make a fund-raiser. And use the collected funds for bribing the government so they would make better animal protection laws?
I don't have the cutest ideas I guess :P

Who's your favourite animal? Why?
It used to be foxes, because they are just awesome. But now it's cats, more specifically - our cats. Well, now it's just a cat, not cats. Because they make me laugh the most. They are very sneaky and they walk sideways sometimes. And they break your favorite jewelry piece and it all still looks cute.

What haven't you done yet but would like to do?
Go to school and be attending and devoted the whole day. Also it would be cool to learn to drive or ride a horse. Or at least become the president of the universe. I don't know, something from these four would be just fine.
Where do you find your ideas and inspiration?
For jewelry - I get 99% of the ideas while shopping for supplies. For other things like drawing and needle felting the ideas come from most random places and things and events. And when I am stuck somewhere like at a lecture or bus station I sketch stuff I saw or heard that day. Later when I want to paint something, I look through those papers to think back.

Would you prefer to live in the country or in the city?
I haven't lived in the city yet, but Prague for example seems pretty sweet.
I guess living in a small town is nice. There is public transport, services and shops near by but also air to breathe.

Quote to live by? "Training is the opposite of hoping"

Your idol(s)? Trey Parker and Michelangelo

Do you have an addiction? I mean like collecting/making jewelry or smth?
Yes, I had an addiction to shopping for jewelry supplies :D I've been clean for 4 months.....Haha. But I have a feeling it will pick up again in the autumn. Oh well... And I just cleared a wall for hanging earrings. So I guess I haven't quit making new ones. It's kind of a useful addiction though, don't you think? :)

What would you never do?
Wouldn't start spilling secrets when I get angry at someone. It would be punishing someone with making others think you are an a**. Clever?

Is there something you couldn't live without?
I guess not. Or maybe ear plugs. And I love my Internetz! :)
I mean, I could live without my gadgets and all but it would be such a drag.

Would you like to add something?
I wish we had pizza delivery and it would be free! Zen! U__U
P.s. Thanks for the feature :)

Thank you, my friend! :)

African wilflife & other creatures at the zoo

Some of the zoo animals I just uploaded.
Go here to see them bigger.

End of summer SALES + FREE wallpapers!

Some of you might say: Is the summer ending already? I know what you mean, it always goes by too fast but luckily we still have some of it left and I'm hoping September will be a warm month :)
But just to send it off together I have some great offers for you!

15% off the price of all Framed and Canvas Prints for seven whole days!! Ends August 27.
And if that's not enough I am also offering you 3 FREE wallpapers to go with your new wall art! All you have to do is find the artwork that you like HERE and choose either a framed or a canvas print. The 15% has ALREADY BEEN TAKEN OFF, the price you see is freshly discounted.
To get the free wallpapers after you have purchased one of my prints just email me at photo [at] mariannrea.com and let me know the name of the image you bought. You will then receive 3 excellent images from my Norway trip last year. Not many people have seen these images and you can be the first one to decorate your desktop with them :)
These are the images that you get for free.


Decorating your wall with photos is great fun! It really brightens the room and gives it atmosphere.


Don't miss out on this great offer!! See my images here!
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I am actually not finished with the sales yet and have another one for you :)
30% off from all of my images in age fotostock!!! This offer ends August 31. You need to enter the promotion code wrapup before finishing the purchase.
Click on the banner below to see my images!

Wild animals on every corner

Yesterday evening was a real treat. I saw 6 roe deer in 2 hours!
It had been a boring rainy day and at 8 in the evening it finally cleared so I headed to the woods. Immediately when I arrived to my favorite paddock there were 2 roe deer there, one male. As it is the time to mate right now the male was interested in the female who had disappeared to the forest so he followed her. After they had left I started crossing the field. Approximately in the middle of the field I turned around and saw 2 more coming to the field - a mother and a baby. I walked slowly towards them. It was dusk already so I set the ISO rating a bit higher but since my camera is really old already I knew I couldn't get a good pic. But I tried, they finally ran away and I was left with blurry images of jumping deer :S
I continued crossing the paddock, went through the wet woods and arrived at the big field. The fog was starting to form and there were some really nice dark clouds with white clouds in between. I stood there a bit and saw a fifth roe deer come to the field far far away. Took some snapshots of the clouds and fog and was already thinking of returning home when I saw the 6th deer come to the field not far away. It was really dark now already so no pics anymore without a tripod.
The road back home was through a dark forest.... brrrrr.

New finished website

I recently finished a website for an italian restaurant here in Tallinn and would like to show off the design for you :) Say what you think!
All the photos on the website are also photographed by me. I really enjoyed making them, especially the food pics ;)
The website is www.toscana.ee Please visit!

Visiting a friend

Visited a family friend the other day. They are artists and make lots of interesting things from leather. You can find a website with their work on it here <-- 100% made by me :P. They also have many animals - a boa, 2 dogs, 2 ponies, 3 or 4 parrots and the newest additions are 3 sheep. All the flowers were blooming so the garden looked really beautiful. Enjoy! Since there were so many images I made them smaller but please click on them to see bigger, it makes a difference.




















This knife is very old and used for leatherwork.