NE Oregonian
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2007
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
I'm almost embarrassed to do this but my style has always been to jump in head first, take the knocks and learn.
I found this forum on a google search, it looked like a fairly friendly place for an absolute beginner to get some help.
After lurking for a few days it became quite obvious I may be in waaay over my head, but a guy has to start somewhere.
I live in a small town(11,000) nestled in the Blue Mountains in North Eastern Oregon. The nearest "mall" is two hours away, although Starbucks has finally found us up here in red neck land. I've even seen a cowboy or two slinking out the door with a four dollar latte from time to time. :lmao:
I am a fisherman and a hunter, but hunting seasons are short. During the off season I hike and take pictures, sometimes snowshoeing into the back country in mid-Winter.
My avatar is a Blue Grouse. Don't think many of you know what that critter is so I'll tell ya'. A Blue Grouse is a game bird that lives on high ridges with timber and open grasslands/steep hills close by. They are slightly larger than a pheasant(I've seen some that were 3-4lbs) and have somewhat of a reputation for being extremely stupid, but not all the time.
The "stupid" ones are the young birds that stand in the forest back roads and get shot by beer guzzling yocals.
I don't do that.
I park my truck at the bottom of the hill and hike for miles to hunt them. These birds are not wanderers, they find a spot and stay there unless harrassed to no end.
I monitor the bird families in the off season and decide whether or not to hunt them in a specific area(due to numbers) when the season finally opens up in the Fall.
Where am I going with this? Stay with me please.
During the off season I hike to a long ridge that is a very special place from my youth. I only take pictures there and try to get action(flying) shots of the birds.
In the 80's there were hundreds and hundreds of blue grouse along this lengthy ridge.
After I left NEO to PDX(Portland) in 1987 a few locals who knew about the spot went in over a 3-4 year period and cleaned them out. I only found this out years after the fact otherwise I would have gladly turned them in even though one guy HAD been a close friend. They bragged about taking double, even triple limits out of there on a daily basis.
The very worst year I could only find FIVE birds over a 2-3 mile stretch. I haven't killed one on that particular ridge since the early 90's. I hunt some neighboring areas but not very intensely.
The good news is I estimate there's about 10-15 in the "old spot" and another larger group of 20-30 a mile or so away. Also a few very small groups have moved into tiny spots in between all that. I don't know if there'll ever be the old "glory days" up there in my lifetime. It's just a place to hike and take piks for now. My new "MO" is to learn new spots every trip, take some birds and then go somewhere else.
The damage those idiots did to the birds saddened me deeply and still does today. Folks that behave like that are a festering sore on dedicated, ethical hunters.
That ridgeline is my sanctuary, the birds there are my pets. As I get older I get softer. I think, even if the birds do come back to the numbers of days past I won't be able to kill any of them since I have been watching them slowly return and thrive, but still, very slowly.
Darn it, I've even named a few of them!
But what does this have to do with photography?
That specific area is my "no-kill" zone. Photos only, I personally could have wiped out the rest of them as it is legal, but also so wrong.
I have NO experience with 35MM film cameras, never took a class. The "action" shots of birds in flight I have taken were done with either a disposable camera or a cheap Radio Shack 1.3MP Flatfoto.
Like this:
Now that I have confessed, feel free to lynch or banish me from the forum.
I'm just sooo tired of missing opportunites to shoot a high quality image because I have the worst camera on the planet. I should be able to afford a high end SLR in a few months. A professional photographer friend of mine who contracts with Nike says I ought to check out the Canon EOS Xti
Thoughts?
For the time being I'll probably just lurk and learn here. I have a few shots of birds in flight that are quite special to me, not because of their quality but the effort undertaken to actually GET the picture with my highly inadequate arsenal.
I'll post them if requested, just keep in mind, with respect to this hobby I am a little kid with a snoopy fishing pole, lost in a crowd of Scotsmen brandishing $2000 spey rods.
I need a camera that can take piks as fast as possible with an easy to use zoom.
I appreciate ALL input, and any criticism.
Thank you!
Mike
I found this forum on a google search, it looked like a fairly friendly place for an absolute beginner to get some help.
After lurking for a few days it became quite obvious I may be in waaay over my head, but a guy has to start somewhere.
I live in a small town(11,000) nestled in the Blue Mountains in North Eastern Oregon. The nearest "mall" is two hours away, although Starbucks has finally found us up here in red neck land. I've even seen a cowboy or two slinking out the door with a four dollar latte from time to time. :lmao:
I am a fisherman and a hunter, but hunting seasons are short. During the off season I hike and take pictures, sometimes snowshoeing into the back country in mid-Winter.
My avatar is a Blue Grouse. Don't think many of you know what that critter is so I'll tell ya'. A Blue Grouse is a game bird that lives on high ridges with timber and open grasslands/steep hills close by. They are slightly larger than a pheasant(I've seen some that were 3-4lbs) and have somewhat of a reputation for being extremely stupid, but not all the time.
The "stupid" ones are the young birds that stand in the forest back roads and get shot by beer guzzling yocals.
I don't do that.
I park my truck at the bottom of the hill and hike for miles to hunt them. These birds are not wanderers, they find a spot and stay there unless harrassed to no end.
I monitor the bird families in the off season and decide whether or not to hunt them in a specific area(due to numbers) when the season finally opens up in the Fall.
Where am I going with this? Stay with me please.
During the off season I hike to a long ridge that is a very special place from my youth. I only take pictures there and try to get action(flying) shots of the birds.
In the 80's there were hundreds and hundreds of blue grouse along this lengthy ridge.
After I left NEO to PDX(Portland) in 1987 a few locals who knew about the spot went in over a 3-4 year period and cleaned them out. I only found this out years after the fact otherwise I would have gladly turned them in even though one guy HAD been a close friend. They bragged about taking double, even triple limits out of there on a daily basis.
The very worst year I could only find FIVE birds over a 2-3 mile stretch. I haven't killed one on that particular ridge since the early 90's. I hunt some neighboring areas but not very intensely.
The good news is I estimate there's about 10-15 in the "old spot" and another larger group of 20-30 a mile or so away. Also a few very small groups have moved into tiny spots in between all that. I don't know if there'll ever be the old "glory days" up there in my lifetime. It's just a place to hike and take piks for now. My new "MO" is to learn new spots every trip, take some birds and then go somewhere else.
The damage those idiots did to the birds saddened me deeply and still does today. Folks that behave like that are a festering sore on dedicated, ethical hunters.
That ridgeline is my sanctuary, the birds there are my pets. As I get older I get softer. I think, even if the birds do come back to the numbers of days past I won't be able to kill any of them since I have been watching them slowly return and thrive, but still, very slowly.
Darn it, I've even named a few of them!
But what does this have to do with photography?
That specific area is my "no-kill" zone. Photos only, I personally could have wiped out the rest of them as it is legal, but also so wrong.
I have NO experience with 35MM film cameras, never took a class. The "action" shots of birds in flight I have taken were done with either a disposable camera or a cheap Radio Shack 1.3MP Flatfoto.
Like this:
Now that I have confessed, feel free to lynch or banish me from the forum.
I'm just sooo tired of missing opportunites to shoot a high quality image because I have the worst camera on the planet. I should be able to afford a high end SLR in a few months. A professional photographer friend of mine who contracts with Nike says I ought to check out the Canon EOS Xti
Thoughts?
For the time being I'll probably just lurk and learn here. I have a few shots of birds in flight that are quite special to me, not because of their quality but the effort undertaken to actually GET the picture with my highly inadequate arsenal.
I'll post them if requested, just keep in mind, with respect to this hobby I am a little kid with a snoopy fishing pole, lost in a crowd of Scotsmen brandishing $2000 spey rods.
I need a camera that can take piks as fast as possible with an easy to use zoom.
I appreciate ALL input, and any criticism.
Thank you!
Mike