Turtle!

A different kind of turtle that is! This little guy was marching towards the parking lot at the Mobile Museum of Art. The teens I was teaching observed his course of action and took their own. Mark picked him up before I could stop him and this resulted in the turtle becoming clammed up tightly into his shell. I shooed all the kids away and proceeded to wait, camera in hand. Gradually, slowly the shell opened up and a tenetive nose poked out. After several seconds, the shell opened more and a neck telescoped into position. Keeping a wary eye on me, the turtle finally realized I was not moving and decided to beat a hasty retreat. It rapidly moved under the tree and froze into position, thinking it was invisible in the grass, weeds, and cypress tree knees. I snapped several shots and went back to painting with the class. We painted this on Friday of our week together. We used the photo of the turtle along with live painting to portray our new little friend.