Goodbye Andrea

Pictured above is quite possibly the very last photo that any zoo visitor has taken of Andrea, the Oregon Zoo's rare Amur Leopard. A short while back, Andrea's veterinarians discovered that she had inoperable cancer that had spread aggressively throughout her body. I took the photo yesterday, as the zoo was closing and most people were hurrying to get to the gates. Cassandra and Bryson and I stopped by to see if we could see her and she was sleeping right next to the glass where the visitors could see her, in a sheltered area that I assume resembles a cave. What is striking about her exhibit was that visitors could literally be within inches of her, separated by a thin glass wall. With her at the same level as you are, within this alcove that could accomadate maybe 2 people at a time, this made for an extremely intimate visit with a big cat. Yesterday, while Cassandra was walking with Bryson I stayed for about 5 minutes with this cat, just looking at her, just the two of us. I already knew she was very, very sick but, even if I hadn't already known, one could look at her and see how thin she was and realize that she was not long for this world. I felt very sad, knowing that she was so sick and likely near death. I felt that I had to take some photos of her, knowing that she would soon be gone. So I snapped several pictures using a slow shutter speed, but they were too dark, I didn't want to disturb her with my flash, so I tried bouncing the flash off of the interior of the little hut I was in, but that just cast an odd reddish glow on her. Finally, I snapped off one image using a direct flash. Fortunately, this didn't disturb her sleep, but I felt bad for using my flash directly on her. The zoo says that there are only about 50 of these cats left in the world. Now there is one less. Andrea was euthanized today at the Oregon Zoo after she hadn't eaten for four days and was probably in too much pain to continue on much longer. We are all poorer for this loss.

Panthera tigris altaica (Siberian Tiger)

Another Shot of one of the tigers at the Oregon Zoo. I like this one even better than the first.

Siberian Tiger - Oregon Zoo

Taken earlier today. I hope that the frame isn't too cheesy! Thanks for viewing.

Double Splash!

Some work in the kitchen with milk and an eye dropper yielded some cool results. 1/200th of a second, F18, ISO 800, 54mm focal length. Captured and edited in RAW mode and transformed to jpeg. Enjoy!

More images from the Dec. 10th WTO protest in Portland, OR.

Heres a series of images from the Dec. 10th WTO protest here in downtown Portland. The shots from top to bottom are: "Looking On" a photo of a motorcycle officer who is directing traffic as the march begins to proceed around downtown, "The Two Marches" this photo shows the ever-present bicycle cops who were shadowing the march to make sure nothing got out of hand, "Trouble Brewing" This is a shot of some of the anarchists who were gathering for the march, they didn't cause any trouble at the march, but I guess they ran afoul of the police at a separate demonstration being held at a downtown fur store.

#700 near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

I really like the motion blur from the train that passed by as I took this shot. Enjoy!

#700 Comes Back

Here is a shot of the SP&S #700 steam locomotive as it returns from being stuck overnight on the rails near Oaks Bottom. From what I heard, the tracks that it was on yesterday and spread apart under the weight of the engine and a couple of the front wheels had come derailed from the track. The train is being used as part of a holiday train ride that is being given in cooperation with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
Machinery such as this are really a marvel, with all the steam and the deep rumbling of a locomotive such as this, you almost get the feeling that its less a machine then it is some great beast rumbling up the tracks. Puffing and growling and screeching its way past in great bellows of smoke and steam. You get the sense of power barely contained as the very ground beneath your feet trembles and shakes with its passing. Truly a marvelous sight.
More shots to come!

Hey! Nice Bike!

Heres a shot I took during the WTO protest downtown in Portland today. I really like this image not only because of the obvious differences between the police officer and the protestor, but that they were able to have an amicable conversation about their bicycles.

Fur Protester Downtown

Last one of the series, not a technically great photo (I should've used a faster shutter speed) but I like the dichotomy here. The contrast between the skull mask, fur wearing protestor and the plastic, fur wearing manniqen is pretty humorous.

Anti-Fur Protesters at Schumachers in Portland, Oregon. 11/26/05

Here is a shot of local anti-fur protesters having a heated 'discussion' with an unidentified employee of Schumachers Furs here in downtown Portland. I was about to give up on getting any interesting shots of the protest when one of the protesters was dumb enough to try to enter the shop. This instigated a confrontation between managment and the protestors. Fortunately it didn't get physical, just harsh words between two ideologically opposed groups, with me getting good shots of the whole thing. I really like this photo because it tells a story unto itself.

More photos coming soon.....

Haven't been really active in putting up photos lately. I've been busy however, getting images ready for printing to be shown at the Talisman Gallery in north Portland. I had submitted some photos for a juried show coming up early next year. They've cashed my check for the entry fee and my friend, Nolan, who shows paintings there, tells me that they've accepted my work! So, I guess we'll see how things go. I'm kind of a little stressed about it now though, I'm having my images printed at about 20"x30" and that will set me back anywheres from $60 to $100, I gotta have them framed, and two of them will be an oddball size, so who knows how much that will cost. Add this stuff on top of the fact that finances for us are already pretty tight and Christmas is around the corner, and well...I guess it will force me to be very creative about how I approach this whole thing. The big unknown for me is the cost of framing. However, I'm pretty sure I can find some inexpensive frames that I can build myself at some of the local craft stores. I'd honestly like to submit the images in a matte frame, but that may look somewhat unprofessional. Well, at least I got one big problem out of my way, that was figuring out how to increase the size of my images without losing the sharpness of my images. Thank God for Photoshop! I had read about a rather clever way of increasing image size and Pixels Per Inch in Scott Kelby's book "Photoshop CS2 for Digital Photographers". Man, that book is a goldmine! Well, enough of my ranting, I'll get to work on some new images soon. I may release some of the high speed shots that I've been experimenting with, but I haven't gotten any shots that I'm really pleased with, so it may be a bit before I release any of those. Thanks for visiting my page!
-David

Thunderbirds Triptych

Heres a photo I created as a submission for the monthly photo assignment at Photosig. The images themselves are nothing new, but the arrangement is different than what I usually do. I think I like it, presenting the images this way helps to tell a story.

Nighttime in the Columbia River Gorge

Heres an interesting shot I got the other night while taking photos of the Vista House. It still needs some more processing to get rid of the noise in the photo, but I still like it.

Vista House at Night

Heres a shot I took of the Vista House at Crown Point last night. The illumination behind the building is coming from the half moon. Taken about 11 p.m.

Pink Rose with frame

Delved back into the archives and pulled out this rose photo from the Oregon Garden taken earlier this year. Thought I'd spruce it up a bit and post it! Enjoy.

Multnomah Falls #2

Another shot of Multnomah Falls from the other day. Enjoy!

Portland at Night

Here is an older shot that I made last March. I've been revisiting some of my old work and touching it up in photoshop and adding the framing that you see here. In this photo I removed a big bush that was in the lower right corner of the photo. I was able to simply clone it out. Also I sharpened this image extensively and also removed some digital noise. I really like the final result here and I may even make a print out of it! Thanks for viewing.

Pink Rose

Heres an image that I posted a close-up of before, now I've played with the lighting in Photoshop and added a really cool frame effect. I think I'll be using this frame on all my shots from now on. Let me know what you think!

Mt. Thielson wide angle

An Image of Mt. Thielson, Oregon. Taken from my fathers boat while fishing at Diamond Lake last August.

Multnomah Falls

Finally! Heres a new shot for all of you out there. Its Multnomah Falls about 20 minutes east of Portland. I've been meaning to get a decent shot here for years. Heres the first of several shots I took today, I'll be working on more photos and posting any others that I like.