Wandering Foward

The Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai is a cool place to visit if you are interested in Tigers, like me. I have always been fascinated by these majestic creatures. At the Tiger Kingdom, the tigers seems to be in great health. Many people think they are drugged to keep them sleepy and safe for people to be around, but I didn’t see any evidence of that. While the tigers do sleep a lot, they were definitely awake most of the time I was there. When you see such a large animal only a foot or two away from you decide to stare you down, you feel like pissing yourself. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the experience of being around the tigers and getting to pet them. Most, if not all, of the tigers at the Tiger Kingdom are raised there and interact with humans from a very young age. You may notice they are very well fed too.

I know, no one wants to see pictures of someone’s kid or pets, but these two are just so dang cute. My good friend and I decided to get a couple of dogs a few months back. They are really his dogs, though I do kind of consider them mine a little bit too. After all, I named them! Mildred and Galileo are brother and sister. They are Havanese, a relatively rare breed. All of the dogs in the US are descendants of 11 dogs from Cubans fleeing the Cuban Revolution. They guys are chocolate, which is not a common color in Havanese (Mildred is the darker of the two, and Galileo is slightly brindled). Havanese are in the Bichon family and descendants of a now extinct Blanquito (meaning, “little white” dog). Like Poodles they do not shed. We keep their coats natural, so there is a lot of effort in grooming the curly, long hair. It’s worth it though, since they are so unique looking. What makes Havanese such a wonderful breed is that they are really smart, have great personalities, and they have a cute bouncy walk because their front legs are shorter than their back legs. If you are interested in getting a Havanese, we know a great “breeder”—I use quotes because she doesn’t do much breeding really (though the dad, Truffles, is a championship winner). Keep in mind that Havanese are a very expensive dog (these guys were $1000 each and we got them at half price), but worth every penny. You can follow these guys on Facebook here.

There is some nice lavender outside of the condos where I live and I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to photograph the bees that were buzzing around it all summer. The lavender is spent now, so I thought for Friday the 13th* I would try and capture the big garden spiders everywhere. One of them caught a bee even. I added an extension tube to my 100mm macro lens, pulled out the tripod, and started taking photos. Alas, none of them turned out. I had a hard time focusing on the spiders really close because of an ever so slight breeze. Really close up macro shots reduce the depth of field—what is not blurry—so it take a lot of effort to get the right spot in focus. I had hoped to try focus stacking the images, but with the breeze the spiders were always moving. Oh well, at least I have a couple photos of bees. They were hard enough to get because they are always moving around too. Thee photos were not taken with my macro lens, but I think they still look great.

* Do you know the reason Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western cultures? It is most likely because on the morning of Friday the 13th in 1307 the Knights Templar were attacked and essentially wiped out by a pope that was fearful of the power and fortune they had amassed.

The John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Eastern Oregon is a fantastic place to visit. John Day is one of the world’s richest sources of fossils. There are literally fossils everywhere. Before people started stealing them, you could easily find fossils. You can still find fossils throughout the monument, you just have to look a little harder—and do not take them, it is illegal and they are actively being studied. The monument covers a large area and has three main points of interest: Painted Hills, with its colorful rolling hills; Sheep Rock, bluish green rock formation that is more like popcorn; and Clarno, with the towering Palisades formed by volcanic mudflows. Millions of years ago this area was a lush rainforest with horses, crocodiles, and other animals long extinct. Now it is desert with sagebrush and grasses. It’s unlikely you will ever see anything quite like it. The closest I know of are the colorful hills in Zhangye Danxia, China. Spend a weekend around here to go on some beautiful drives, great hikes and see some of the most amazing natural formations in the world.

I went to Eastern Washington to take some photos for my niece’s senior year pictures. I managed to capture a few other things in the process, and on the way there and back home to Seattle. My dad has a big yard with a lot of flowers, so I also took a few photos from around there too. I hope you enjoy.

About five years ago I went on a tour of Italy. I remember this trip very well for a few reasons. One, the photos turned out really shitty. I really didn’t try very hard to take good pictures. I had gone through a phase of not taking photos while traveling, but because this was Italy everyone wanted me to take photos. I just looked, then snapped the shot, never really composing them or bothering to see what the light balance setting was. Turned out, it was on tungsten which messed up the photos badly. Trust me when I tell you, these crappy photos involved many hours of Photoshop editing to get them into this state.

Another reason I remember Italy so well is that I was surprised at how third world it seemed—like it was well past it glory days. The architecture, art, and history are undeniably spectacular, and the culture is wonderful, but there was just something about it. Anyway, the other reason I remember this trip so well is that when I got back to the US, the economy was tanking. I spent a lot of money on this trip because of a poor exchange rate and the general high cost of Europe, so coming home to absolutely no work sucked. I didn’t expect a two-week vacation to turn into an eight month vacation. Nonetheless, I loved Italy and was awed by the beauty, and certainly numb to churches and famous art after that. 😉

I absolutely love the beach and have been daydreaming lately about going to one. It occurred to me that you might be too, so I put together this little photo gallery so we can daydream together. Picture yourself lounging on a beautiful white sand beach with turquoise water, drinking a margarita, and just relaxing. Some of the beaches are not easy to get to, being remote (to get to Sugar Beach you have to wade across a river), but once you are there they are totally worth it. Koh Lipe and Otres Beach are two of my favorite beaches. At both places I had planned on just staying a couple nights and ended up staying for well over a week.

Gas Works Park is an old gasification plant turned into city park on the North shore of Lake Union. It is the only remaining remnants of a coal gasification plant in the United States. The park has a beautiful view of downtown Seattle (including the Space Needle), the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge and the Aurora Bridge (officially, the George Washington Memorial Bridge). Gas Works has a lot of wide open space, an artificial hill for flying kites, and outdoor movie nights during the summer. Unfortunately, as you might imagine, the park has some environmental issues. Oil would bubble up from the ground on hot days, though that apparently has been “fixed,” and ground contaminants are leaching into Lake Union. So the park is closed every now and then for testing and cleanup. Still, Gas Works Park is one of the more interesting parks in Seattle and the nation.