BigStock reached out to us about featuring their portfolio in our entries, and we had so much fun exploring, we wanted to share some entertaining collections of images. There are some seriously talented photographers at work in stock imagery, too.
There’s also a lot of gold to be mined when it comes to stock photos. Every month, we’d love to share with you some great, beautiful, or downright silly things we’ve come across on BigStock.
This month’s theme: Romance Pets
Our first post was a big hit with my rampant imagination, so I’m going to continue with concocting up romance plots!
This is Itsy! She’s a precious and curious little crab at a local aquarium in one of the teaching touch pools. She’s also our heroine’s favorite critter, but she’s gone missing! Enter a buttoned-down, stern aquarium benefactor. Her family has been donating to the aquarium for years, but she’d rather their money be use elsewhere. Can these opposites find love while looking for a little lost crab? Note: I have no clue how aquarium funding works.
Photo credit: Thaisign | BigStock
Misha sees all and she is not having it. Enter a romance between a small town butcher and a dogsledder. Misha is the most discerning of the sled dog pack and to win the heart of the heroine, you have to win her over first. Sneaking her prime cuts of meat to soften her up is a start, but you’ll have to do better than that!
Photo credit: Elena71 | BigStock
Martha Washington is one of the most coveted, show ferrets in the D.C. area! But this furry, wiggly noodle has a mischievous side. Our local reporter heroine is kind of bummed she has to cover a ferret show, but things take a turn when Martha slinks her way into the heroine’s purse. Will our hero believe her story of Martha’s great escape or is the heroine merely after his beloved, prize-winning ferret?
Photo credit: Valitov Rashid | BigStock
Now I know wild horses aren’t really “pets,” but I’m making the rules! And sometimes, nature is so dang beautiful. I’m picturing a touching scene between two gruff cowpokes who have a soft spot for the outdoors. Maybe they’re standing close together, taking in the adorable new foals of the spring and their pinkies brush. I love a good pinkie brush.
Photo credit: PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek | BigStock
Which animal story is your favorite? I’m very excited to see what my imagination will cook up next in Adventures in BigStock.
The show ferrets? Aquarium funding? These are all great, who could pick!
Well, I can pick. Martha Washington is my catnip! Just shoot a ARC my way when you’ve finished writing. This was waay fun.
Please write Itsy’s story first (because I’ve never read a story starring a pet crab); and as soon as you finish writing that one, you can start on Misha’s story (just because she’s so darn gorgeous)!
Misha’s story, because I am a sucker for dogs. (But fyi, Misha is usually a boy’s name.)
I could pick. Definitely the misnamed Misha. Reminds me of my sweet Sasha. Which I found out later was often a nickname for Alexander. So I guess they’re russian versions of Taylor or Colby.
I have ferrets and I’ve only ever gotten two types of photos: sleeping, or blurry. I can’t imagine getting one to hold still while wearing a hat!
@Kris Block
That’s why Martha is a professional with her own agent and a hefty SEP IRA.
Oh man, this is so difficult. I can’t decide between the crab or the ferret. All of them are great ideas!
It gives me the warm and fuzzies to see how much you all love Martha!
I thought I’d pick Misha after skimming through the photos, but after reading the blurbs, Martha Washington’s won me over.
DonnaMarie – Sasha (as well as Shura) is short for both Alexandra and Alexandr. Misha being a female name outside of Russia will baffle me forever. I tend to blame Thomas Harris. Though it’s possible there are countries where it’s a perfectly normal diminutive for Michaela or something.
This post would make a great writing exercise. Choose one of these couples and write their meet cute; the romance pet must be included. Go! Is it NaNoWriMo yet?
Martha Washington’s story. (Because I’m old enough to remember the 90s when NYC Mayor Giuliani banned ferrets! Anyone else remember those crazy call in radio shows where Rudy ranted about ferrets and weasels? That coot was always crazy, just saying. So I want to see a story where Martha the prize-winning ferret is also illegal !!!)
@Redcrow – I think it must be because it ends in an “a”. For whatever reason, I usually expect -a names to be female.
I am totally won over by Itsy, but in part because I have been running a smallish by highly biodiverse research aquarium for the last several years… though I’m in the process of handing it off right now.* I kind of want to drag up my back issues of the Tank Room Gazette (my tongue in cheek newsletter about the trials and travails of our various critters, which I write when I end up spending too much time at loose ends around the lab.) Many of the crustaceans are pretty socially aggressive towards one another, though there is a fair bit of diversity (a lab favorite was our pygmy rock crab, who never started fights, but always ended them, and was a sweetie to boot.) BTW, I’ve only looked into public aquaria a little, but it does seem like their funding situations vary?
I had a version of Misha once, in a regal black kitty who looked over all of my suitors. He had more that a few false positives, but his negatives were always on the mark. They knew they had to court him… but would go as far as lulling them into a false sense of security before taking a viscous swipe at their crotch with his claws and then taking off. He was rather clear about the source of his displeasure in that case. (And correct one again!)
* Because I’ve accepted a post-doc designing squishy robots. Except now it’s all the robots. With lasers on their heads. No, my life makes no sense at all.
@Lepiota yes please share your newsletter??? I’m in love with the idea of it and of that crab!
Also. Robots! Maybe you’ll have to resurrect the journal for that!
@Another Kate: “When a Scot Ties the Knot” by Tessa Dare has a lobster. Will that do? Actually two lobsters, Fluffy and Rex.
@Claudia sure thing – here’s probably the best of them! (Especially since I’m procrastinating…)
Slug Room Times-Picayune (apparently I’ve varied the name – oh, and our main focus is sea slug neurobiology…)
Carboy Five Returned to Service!
The new fifth carboy commenced with its maiden filling, restoring the slug room to its full complement of salt water storage. As part of the upgrade, JF added new letter to all the carboys in an attempt to make the fill lines more readable. Stop by and see the new fixture in the animal facility! While visiting, take a gander at J’s newly reconditioned refugium divider!
Today’s Numbers
[cut, because nitrate, ammonia and phosphate numbers from a couple of years back really aren’t relevant to anything]
* Unusually high amounts of precipitate. You might not be part of the solution!
The Unusual Case of Aggro Crab
Lab members are wondering if anyone has seen Aggro Crab. Aggro Crab, for anyone unacquainted with this local original, is a hermit so cantankerous that it has been known to charge lab members engaged in animal feedings. (It seems possible that crab aggression has a seasonal aspect, as increased aggression has been noted in other crustaceans.)
Some weeks ago, Aggro Crab had dispatched his primary competition in the author’s tank, quartering it without the customary equine assistance. In exasperation, the author and the lab member currently on slug duty conspired to move Aggro into M’s tank, in the hopes that the Stout Shrimp and Pygmy Rock Crab were too large for Aggro’s style of abuse, and that Aggro’s disposition might be turned to good effect in helping bring down the population of amphipods.
The next day Stout Shrimp was found, dead, deep in a thicket of chaetomorpha. No evidence of foul play was discovered, but authorities are investigating his death as “mysterious”. Soon after, it was noted that Aggro Crab’s most recent shell had been abandoned. No sign of the crab, living or dead has been found.
Pygmy Rock Crab was not found for comment at the time of writing of this article, but it is his well known habit to hide himself away during such troubled times. Pygmy, our thoughts are with you.
***
I’m not claiming I was at my best when I wrote this 🙂 (We did eventually find a few of Aggro Crab’s arms, buried in the gravel. Pygmy Rock Crab lived for another year and a half, anti-social, but dearly beloved.)
BTW, as there has been a lot of, ahem, noise about lobsters recently, may I recommend Lessons from the Lobster – Eve Marder’s Work in Neuroscience https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/lessons-lobster ? (I’m a giant Eve Marder fan, and it’s kind of nice to get info from someone who’s actually a neurobiologist. I’ve taught crustacean social dominance, and I have opinions on how certain folks* are mis-characterizing the research.)
No clue if I’ve going to do anything like this once I’m in the robot lab – I’m just trying to make it over there.
* Yo, not anyone on this forum, if you’ve been spared lobster boys, give thanks and don’t pursue the subject.