As animals migrate, winter brings changes to the wildlife you see in the Pacific Northwest. Our Irvington neighborhood is no exception.
Author: boolie
Ten Years Gone
Templeton died just over ten years ago on December 8, 2007. This little fellow changed my life. I took this picture while he was recuperating from surgery in January 2006.
Double Dragon
These pictures may look the same but the top one is from Saturday, the bottom Sunday. We’ve had a spate of sunny and cold weather and Ellie was up for unusually long walks both days, slightly over an hour and a half on Saturday and slightly under on Sunday. She wanted to go past Irvington School on the way home, normally we don’t go that far south and east, she likes it because people walk their dogs in the grass field and I like it because I can photograph her beside the dragon statue. She wanted to go Friday as well, trying several times to get me to go past, but school was in session.
This pup is the best.
One Year Ago Today
Exactly one year ago we were supposed to get a little bit of snow, a rarity for us, so I stayed home from work so I could take the pup out in whatever we got. We’d get quite a bit of snow a month later, not like the dusting here, but of course I had no way of knowing that. A biting wind made our outing less enjoyable than it might have been but I was still thankful for the chance to take Ellie out in the snow. Today was also a bit of a rarity weather-wise, cold but sunny, as it has been all week. No pictures from today, I had a meet-and-greet with a potential employer and was tied up all morning so we had to forego the long walks that have been a staple of our mornings since I got laid off a month ago.
White on Green on Brown
We have two large maple trees between the sidewalk and the street, last winter brought white snow on top of the green moss on top of the brown bark.
Brothers at the Window
Sam and Boo sitting side-by-side atop the cat tree, watching out my office window. Taken with perhaps my favorite camera/lens combination ever, the Sony A6500 and the Sony-Zeiss 24mm. There isn’t much room between the edge of the cat tree and the wall, I’m standing with the camera held at Sam’s eye level, I tilted the screen so I could see the image and tapped to set the focus on the fur above his eye. Not a particularly slow shutter speed but I wasn’t in the stablest of camera positions so the image stabilization was appreciated. Really glad I picked up this camera in the spring, it has finally my solved my desire for a small walk-around camera.
The Lap Cat
Sam has always been a lap cat, here snuggled into my lap as we curled up on my love seat. I’ll let you guess where he is as I type this. We started him on antibiotics today to see if it will improve the digestive issues that have haunted him the past month, here’s hoping.
Forest Gnome
When I first got started in wildlife photography, when I’d come across a hole or a cavity I assumed that if you waited a while, you’d see the creature that lived there. I learned long ago that you often don’t see the animal, and maybe nothing is living there at all, so when I saw this creature greeting the morning sun from its tree home I approached cautiously and respectfully, took a few pictures, then continued on my way.
Strangely Familiar
I was in Japan for the first time on a work trip in 2005 and a colleague who had been there before wanted to stop off at this Starbucks before we reached the office. I had only been out of the United States once before (to China), and am always a little befuddled by travel even in the US, so I was still rather out of sorts. But this Starbucks turned out to be strangely familiar. Not the store itself, I don’t drink coffee and to this day don’t know what all those coffee terms mean, but while waiting on my friend I heard someone call out my name. I turned and saw it was one of my colleagues from Tokyo, I didn’t know we were so close to the office, and suddenly I felt more at ease.
It was a fun trip and on my last day, about to head to the airport from Ueno Park, someone actually stopped me and asked for directions to the zoo. Directions I was able to give! I can’t even give proper directions to most places in Portland, my sense of geography is terrible, but I had passed the zoo on the way to the park from the train and was able to help this couple find their way.
Amazing Science Facts
Many people know cats can climb trees. Not so many know sheep can too.
