Oh, I never worked in the industry - I just learned how to blow glass. It was fun, but the extreme heat made my hands break out with excema so I didn't pursue it as a hobby.
But yes - many of his pieces are quite impressive! I have to give him some credit for the gargantuan structures, and for adding to the field even if I question the way he operates.

awesome shots kingboy!!!
...great place to live.

love florida´s malls and nature too.

4 hour canoe trip through loxahatchee refuge craziest thing ever done in my life,
u get to see dozens of gators in arms length distance sitting in that tiny plastic boat.




...got to find one of those huge pythons next time!

That first pic is amazing!! Great timing to be able to catch that. The fish looks transluscent - wild! The refuges are always fun to visit.

In terms of gators, I occassionally have to drive through Alligator Alley (connects the east and west coasts of Florida), and once you learn to spot them, you see unbelievable numbers. One time I counted just for the fun of it, and I saw well over 1,000!

Chihuly's stuff is definitely impressive, despite a lot of things that look the same. As for using assistants to do huge amounts of work, I had no clue how pervasive it is until my sister (a recent art school graduate) did an internship of sorts for an artist. The artist, who shall remain nameless, had her assistants do a lot of work on the paintings, and then did varying degrees of work herself (sometimes a little, sometimes doing so much it wasn't even recognizable). It is a shame how accepted the practice is.

But back to the subject, nature is crazy. And that shark statue seems perfect for tons of great photos.

I just found this thread searching for something else. Holy smokes that iguana is beautiful! My mind is just

Next time the iguana comes around, call immigration, it's an illegal alien. ;p

this put an old pet of ours back in my head
Spunky the 6ft iguana
my dad built a huge enclosure for him that took up most of our breezeway floor-to-ceiling
he liked my mom and brother but not my dad, used his deadly tail whip on him a time or two, once he got this huge cut like a mustache right above his lip

edit: holy shit. I talked to my dad about it and I've been wrong for many years. my dad was the one he LIKED. he just handled him way more than the people he DIDN'T like (makes sense) so the chances of getting owned by that tail were higher anyway

Man I love iguanas but after breeding herps, I wish pet stores would stock less of them. If I had a nickel for everytime I had to talk a parent out of getting one for their 6 year old, I would collect vintage. Really cool to see one on its own running around in nature. Some really cool photos all over this thread.

This is just what I thought reading this thread, how beautiful they are in "the wild " as opposed to a pet that 9 times out of ten will be dead soon. It always made me sad she I'd see local pet shops full of babies for sale next to the kittens and puppies. It was worse before though, there used to be baby gators for sale too.

I kept herps for years but never any iguanas, if they dont like you they can be nasty. A bite from a six foot corn snake is not bad but a six foot iguana bite you won't forget.

Otherwise, definitely for being a common animal they are so beautiful!!!

Yea, iggy's can be great pets but really need a lot of space and a dedicated caretaker. They are not a good starter pet for kids. The place I worked was more of a breeding project so we were very honest with people and discouraged or redirected thousands of ill informed customers. One of my favorite herps was the crocodile monitor. Ours was around 7 feet long and i used to walk him down Sports Arena Blvd. in a dog harness. He loved it but you had to be careful to not let him get started on climbing a tree. Don't have pics but here is one for reference.

Oh yes, Crocodile Monitors are great. My friend was part owner at the East Bay Vivarium years ago and they had a giant, I loved that guy and would always stare at him for a while whenever I stopped at the shop. Used to always check out the mangroves too but they were just too high tension to take home.

My love was always kingsnakes, I had about 30 at one time but when I moved from SF I took them all over to the EBV so they would have a good home. I've been wanting to keep a few again but I can't, six cats, a baby and myself are enough these days.

Wow, this thread makes me miss South Florida. I used to live in Ft. Lauderdale and worked in Deerfield Beach.

It's still weird to me not seeing tons of little creatures running across any given sidewalk now that I live in the Mid West.

Glad everyone digs these. I have a ton more. Here are some from my phone, so the quality is not so great.


From my front yard:

Another giant toad (note comparison to the size of the brick)







These next few are actually from the front of my office:







From a residence next to a local park:


This massive tortoise just roamed this huge backyard.



They also had this mammoth beast







Finally, as I mentioned, I live in the "Butterfly Capital of the World". There is a local facility known as Butterfly World ( http://www.butterflyworld.com/ ) where thousands upon thousands of different types of butterflies flitter all around you, landing on you. They have different types hatching at different times of the year too, I believe. Anyway, these next photos were taken from a recent visit:
















Cool plants there:










And there is a lab where they raise them. They have a cool display with different types of chrysalises. You can actually see some butterflies hatch out of them if you are lucky (see the last photo):

Love the iguana pics! I don't see them that often here in SoFl but when I do come across them, I'm always startled by how big they are - like modern day mini dinos.

The "cold snap" we had 2 years ago killed off a huge number of the iguanas.
Nice to see all the FL people talking.