Teddy Bear Sponge

This sponge was roped and drying on the side of a sponge boat at the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs, FL. When I saw it hanging there, it reminded me of a Teddy Bear holding a bunny. It just looked so soft and cuddly, I had to snap a quick shot of it.

I tend to have quite an imagination when it comes to patterns and things spotted in nature and I'm always on the lookout for things like this. My visions seem to remind me of when I was a kid, lying on a hill with my friends looking up at the clouds and finding all sorts of interesting characters in the cloud formations. I guess this is a take-off from those times on lazy summer afternoons.

I keep a folder for things spotted like this, and I call it my Arbor Menagerie. This isn't a formation in tree bark, but it's close enough to include it there.

What does it remind you of? Let me know in your comments.

Settings used for this image were 1/200 (because I wasn't using my tripod (which I was carrying and too lazy to set up)) at F5.6 for shallow depth of field to blur the background, ISO 400 (it was a cloudy day, so I needed more light), 146mm with my 55-250mm trusty walk-around lens. Metering was set at Partial Metering in Aperture Priority mode.