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Tag: birds

Exciting New GP Picture Products!

We finally get to put up actual pictures that Scarlett took in the Galapagos on products!

There are so many reasons why putting up products with our actual pictures takes so long. I’m still new to editing and to be honest, I’m not sure which is more difficult for me, editing pictures or creating graphics from pictures.

So much needs to be done in efforts to protect work. There are many reasons for why you see graphics come out faster on our products compared to pictures. One of our main concerns is that animals, including penguins, get misnamed. Of course pictures are often stolen, meta data is changed, no credit is given, etc. But the worse is when someone puts a up picture of an African penguin that belongs to someone else and references it as an Emperor penguin, as an example. Or uses that picture to share Emperor Penguin facts. Of course most of you reading this know there’s differences amongst species but not everyone does so the wrong information paired with the wrong picture is misleading. This irks me.

When we went to the Galapagos the penguin merch was so sparse, I was ecstatic when I found anything penguin related. I bought a magnet that had a penguin on it and branding of a Galapagos national wildlife association. It even said Galapagos penguin on it. I bought it immediately and took it home. When I placed it on the fridge, I felt like a real doofus. It was a picture of an African penguin. Super upsetting.

There’s a lot to know about protecting art of every sort and pictures especially. Did you know it’s illegal to remove or crop out a watermark? Everything a person makes is automatically their property and copyrighted but getting the images copyright registered with the copyright office is what makes it possible for people to leverage their work in court when people or companies use a photo without permission.

After a ton of research and knowing about sad stories of stolen work, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be fully comfortable putting up a design or picture without it being on a product. I worry that’ll make us unpopular. Maybe I shouldn’t be worried? But better safe than sorry?

Anyways, thanks for your patience everyone! We hope you all love the new products! If you want to see them featured on any other products, please let us know!

Special Requests, Diversity, and Inclusivity

Here at Surrounded By Penguins we encourage people to take the opportunity to be part of the product creation process. We want to make products that you will love and cherish. So when aq31.12 on Instagram took the time to message us to suggest that we place the new Galapagos penguin design on a shirt that was a different style, how could we not oblige?

Now we wanted to place the design exactly where the original is placed. As of last night, this cannot be done unless we place it on a shirt that allows for wrap around printing. This drove up the cost of the shirt by over $20usd and put the shirt in the new materials category instead of using recycled materials. So we reached out the aq13.12 again and asked for input about the shirt you see featured here. To quote aq13.12 that hearted the image… “I think the middle looks great”. Approved! Awesome.

Thanks so much aq13.12 for the suggestion!

Have a suggestion? Please feel free to let us know what it is! No pressure! All suggestions that are not spam will be considered.

Galapagos Penguin RECYCLED T-Shirt

Galapagos Penguin RECYCLED T-Shirt

Color: Black, Size: XL

25,00 €
Shop now

Trash Tuesdays Open to the Public!

Every Tuesday Surrounded By Penguins does a morning beach walk to pick up liter on a beach within the San Diego, California County. Near or far, wherever you are. We believe a little help does a penguin good.

So far these event have been private due to safety concerns. Recently, the Executive Penguin posted about picking up broken glass and tar on a beach in the area. Some of that post is as follows.

I’ve been hesitant to open #trashytuesdays to the public but I’m realizing no matter what it’ll never be as safe as we wish we could make it. There’s still some tar on the beaches, broken glass and other hazards, but all the more reason to continue… Starting next week, I’m gonna open up Surrounded By Penguins Trashy Tuesdays Beach Clean Up in hopes that we remember, even amongst all the trash, we’re still surrounded by love and beauty.
Now remember that proceeds from sales at www.surroundedbypenguins.com do go towards funding the beach clean ups so if you wanna help but can’t make it there are other ways you can assist.
1) Pick up a piece or 2 of liter every Trashy Tuesday
2) Contribute to Surrounded By Penguins by purchasing SBP merch
3) How else can you help the penguins near and far?
Comment below.
Be sure to post about your own liter picking for Trashy Tuesdays!

This Tuesday, Sippy with hys new vest will be helping with the beach clean up. We can’t wait to see what hys flippers find!

Please refer to the calendar below for specifics to Surrounded By Penguins Trashy Tuesday and other events.

Seems like Sippy is already finding some trash to take out!

Waddling towards the unfamiliar…

Trying a new design technique for this particular Galapagos penguin shot. And a new shirt made from recycled material!

What do you all think?

A Day in Perris… Meeting the Sand Penguin Family

Have you ever heard of sand penguins? Not African penguins or other penguin species that you can find waddling on beaches and other sandy areas, but actual magical sand penguins. These penguins are so rare that only a few picture of them have been seen on the internet. From the first time we found out about them, we became obsessed with a need to meet them.

Well we were in luck! Our recent visit to Perris Lake lead us to a wonderful beach spot where Sand Penguins magically appeared! Once we heard of the special appearance the race was on to meet them before they disappeared into their mysterious hidden nesting grounds in the sea.

No time to pack neatly! Come on everyone lets go! The trek was harder than we thought it would be… Having no time to figure out how to best roll the wagon, we dragged across the beach until we saw some Seagulls.
Excuse me, Seagulls. Can you tell us where we might find the sand penguins? Squawk! Set up here, yeah set up here, they’ll come to you! Squawk! Yeah! They will come to you.
Zippy: What do you think, Sippy? Should we set up here?
Sippy: I am not so sure, Zippy. There’s something about those Seagulls that I can’t quite put my beak on. But I suppose this is just as good as any other place here, so lets set up.
Once set up, everyone agreed that the location was beautiful. Beautiful but no sand penguins in sight.
*Just then… A flock of Seagulls came into view* Huh. What’s this? What are these Seagulls up to?
Whoa! What a flurry! I can barely tell what is going on!
As the Seagulls passed, only one remained… “Squawk! Hello there penguins and friends! March along there towards the water where all the other Seagulls fluttered. There among the sand and sea, you will find what you seek.” And so a small party of brave penguins set out to the shoreline. They said bye to Seagull as they made a u turn over the sand penguins and back towards the other seagulls. Bye Seagull!
With not more than a wiggle and a waddle. They saw that a few of the sand friends and small penguins were already at the shore line. Huh, how did that happen? And wait… Is that what we think it is?
It is! And a baby sand penguin at that! And look there are others! And the small penguins are even guarding.
Sippy: “Hello family! And hello new to us sand family!”
Look at all them!
With the magical sand penguins arriving and the visiting penguins making their way, the seagull took their leave. “Thank you, Seagull! I hope we see you again soon!” said the visiting penguins. “No problem. I am sure we will meet again. Take care!” the Seagull responded
Wow! It seems like we’re late to the party! We better hurry!
Mippy: Wait a minute, I forgot something!
What’d you forget, Mippy?
Mippy: “A kite! To fly so that we can signal thank you to all the other seagulls.”
Fantastic, Mippy! That’s a great idea!
Finally, we made it! Time to have the a sand party of royal proportions!
Some friends even came on a sand raft!
All the friends learned so much about each other. The sand penguins are royalty made of magic. They help to protect all beaches, even when they don’t form into penguins. They love when people play in the sand with them, but they don’t like when people liter on them because it’s dangerous and disrespectful.
The sun was starting to set. It was time to get going. Jack wanted to stay with the sand penguins. Not ready to leave the beach, Jack lagged behind.
Come on, Jack! They all encouraged Jack to come back.
Jack: But I don’t want to leave! What if we never see the sand penguin family again?

Sand Penguins: Remember Jack, and everyone, we are everywhere a beach is, be it by a lake, sea, or ocean.  We are all around and sometimes even come home in your shoes.  Don’t forget to keep the beaches and sand clean, when everything is pristine that’s when we sometimes visit.  We saw you picking up liter and that’s why we showed, so keep up the good work.  Keep on having fun and in sure, some day soon we’ll sea each other again! Get it? Sea. 
Jack sighed… Okee. I guess I’ll go then and keep helping to clean the beach in hopes that we’ll see you next time!

They all said their farewells and thank you’s until it was almost too dark to sea each other… Get it? Sea. Until next time sands penguins, until next time…. Oh! And seagulls too!

Island fever

Surrounded By Penguins had a dinner meeting last night regarding future travel. We haven’t even put up the designs we have so far, but we already need more images for merchandise and other creations. I’ve heard this is typical. Right now, we’re waiting for some quality control samples to come in! It’s been a long time coming and yet, it seems like it’s all happening so fast. I’ve heard that before. I hear many lines in my head from people that have shared their experiences. Most of which are true. People aren’t kidding when they say, for about every 1,000 images 1 is useable. Good thing we had a past trip to Australia and New Zealand so we had some images already but not having “Surrounded By Penguins” in mind, even less than 1 image per 1,000 is usable. Lol. I could go on about all the truths but I’m already digressing.

Seeing this bookshelf while waiting to register my car made me home sick for the islands. Guess I should had registered a boat instead of a car. Lol.

What Surrounded By Penguins had a dinner meeting about last night was *drum roll please* the Galapagos Islands! Let’s hope it can happen this year come October! I am sooo in need of swimming with the penguins. I think some under water shots could make really cool looking merch.

Of course this place had no Galapagos Islands books.

Athletic Penguin

Athletic penguin
byu/citrus-fiend inpenguin

Check out this amazing Penguin that’s got more hop than waddle! Did you expect that?!

I watched and thought “No way is that penguin going to go over the rail, surely this cutie will being going around as African Penguins have the attitude to do something clever like that. Maybe under? No! It’s in slow motion! The pengies gonna do it! Air penguin!”

Now I know that penguin’s can be taught a lot of tricks and I do believe that if it was not for them being aquatic birds, people would take them in as pets, but I really didn’t expect an African penguin to jump like that! Over a rail! The same kind of rails I used to grind on when I inline skated and skateboarded (yes, I did both).

Anyone know where this majestic athlete is housed? Just curious, you know, for a friend. Not for kidnapping purposes, I promise. ;oP

Athletic penguin
byu/citrus-fiend inpenguin