Sunflower

Taken on our apple picking trip a few weeks ago.

More Dog Park

Met this little guy at the dog park last week.

Dog Park

My new favorite thing in life is the Ithaca Dog Park. I'm pretty sure it didn't exist last year, but if it did I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't know about it sooner. It's just a big open (fenced in) space for dogs, but taking Skua down there is a lot of fun. More so than say...homework. Plus its only a short drive from my apartment so we get to go out there at least a few times a week. It's good for Sku, it's good for me, and it seems like its good for everyone else. I know Papa won't like to read it, but having this park makes me want/realistically believe I can handle another dog. Don't worry, I won't even think about getting one until next fall. But next fall is probably the best time for me to get one, I have more time at home at school than I will when I have to get a job. And Papa, if you're feeling left out, that offer to train you a little canine pal for Christmas still stands.

Study Abroad

On Monday afternoon I submitted my applications to study abroad in the spring. First choice destination: Zanzibar. The program is field study based and focused on coastal ecology so if I get accepted I'll be learning about the rare red colobus monkey on land and diving with dolphins in the Indian Ocean. Best of all, while all of you are struggling to stay positive in some freezing winter weather, I'll be studying. Doesn't sound that exciting? I'll be studying from this beach.

Przewalski's Horse

On the scale of things that really annoy me, this horse is right up at the top of the list. Not because of the horse itself, I love the horses, but because I have never heard anyone pronounce its name correctly. I even had a course last semester at Cornell with "highly respected" professor who couldn't even manage to do it. So here's the correct way for all of you. The Przewalski's (Shuh-vall-skee...I know that's not even close to the correct phonetic spelling, but you get the idea) Horse, or takhi, is the only remaining truly wild horse on earth. Mustangs, brumbies and such are actually just feral horses, not wild. This horse is one of the many reasons I'd like to visit Mongolia before I die.

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's the big 21 folks.

A little break from the cats

I thought it was about time to give anyone who actually checks this blog a bit of a rest on the big cat pics. There are more, but its easy to overdo it. So here's a nice change of pace from my trip to the Minnesota Zoo. This odd looking ungulate is the Sichuan takin, a close (and very rare) relative of the musk ox and the mountain goat.

Shazam

Shazam is another of the more spectacular cats at the sanctuary, he is a black leopard (not to be confused with the black jaguar I posted earlier). He was a very high stress cat when he came to the sanctuary, but Trista (the head keeper) has put in a lot of work with him since he showed up. It has definitely payed off; he's still a pretty high stress cat, but the bond he and Trista have is pretty impressive. He was very tough to shoot, black things can be difficult to focus on.

Close Up

Titan again, but this time I tried to capture some of his personality, and the emotions surrounding his previous life and rescue, by focusing just on the eye region. This turned out as one of two photos that I think really capture the essence of the sanctuary, you can almost sense some of the abuse and sadness in his past, but you also recognize that those problems really are in the past for him. Like he's finally found some peace.

Titan

This is Titan again. There will be a lot of him popping up around here soon. Not much more to say than I already did on the other one of him posted already.

Not all the cats were big

This is one of many servals in residence at the sanctuary. They're very popular as pets because of their smaller size (round about 3 feet long) and the fact that serval kittens (like most kittens) are pretty damn cute. Like all the other wildcats, the cuteness fades. While the adult cats are still beautiful, they turn out to be much more than the owner bargained for: they can be very aggressive towards humans and other pets, and they are difficult to control (able to jump about 9 feet in the air). So, needless to say, they end up in places like the Wildcat Sanctuary which is a much better home (still not as good as the wild).

Mix It Up

In the interest of not putting all the tiger photos together, here's something a little bit different. This is Diablo Guapo (Handsome Devil), the sanctuary's black jaguar. This is probably the photo that recieved the most time as far as editing is concerned, it took a while to remove fencing and other unnecessary noise from the background, and some more to get the effect just right. I like the two dimensional effect of this one, it hardly seems like a photograph at all.

Sorry it has been so long

Its been a hectic and photo free few months since my last post. I can't even remember everything that has happened to keep me from regular entries here but here's a taste: broken computer, frequent travel, lack of material, internship...that's a few that make me feel less bad about my lack of production. But I now have more free time than I know what to do with (the internship ended a bit sooner than I thought it might) and I have some stuff worth posting so keep an eye out. Here's the first of several photos I worked up for The Wildcat Sanctuary. This is Titan, my favorite cat by a long shot and one of the many things I regret having to give up. I think we can all agree that he's pretty damn photogenic. He and another tiger, Lily, ended up coming to the sanctuary after their owner was killed by another tiger. He has put on some 200 pounds since he arrived and I believe he is now hovering around 500 (despite losing all four canine teeth), I think he certainly earns the big cat title. My absolute favorite times at the sanctuary were walking near his enclosure and being greeted with chuffing (a deep, throaty rumble that tigers use as a greeting). It was also fun watching him stalk the other interns when they weren't paying attention near his fence. He's one of the many reasons I want to keep doing what I can to help the sanctuary out even after I am gone.

Now You All Know a Published Photographer

Raptor

By Matthew Jorgensen

Well, if you were wondering why it has been so long between posts this is the reason. I haven't been getting out to shoot anything new recently because I've been working on putting a book of my photography together. I'd suggest you all go out and buy it, but then what would I give you all for your birthdays? I guess you could get your friends to buy though. I will hopefully be seeing the final product on my doorstep in a few days so I'll let you all know how it turns out. Thanks to Marty for putting me onto the website that got this started (and finished I suppose).

The Wildcat Sanctuary

Let me just preface this by saying that this is not my photograph. Then let me follow up by saying that I may have some like this by the end of the summer. I have officially been offered an animal care internship at The Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, MN for the summer. So that means I will definitely not be in Wyoming much at all during the break. I still have to hear from the Denver Zoo as to whether or not I have the option of working there, but I'm not sure if I should wait to find out. I don't know if I even get an interview there until the 15th. Thoughts? I'm really not sure what I should do, but it's looking like MN has a good chance at being my final destination. That means Lindsay will at least be getting some visits on my days off, (and possibly a third dog for a few months?...)

Snow Day

We got a lot of snow in Ithaca last night and today, and Skua finally got to go out and enjoy it off of her leash this afternoon. Of course she wore herself out and is now asleep on my bed, but she has more fun in snow than any dog I know.

Harris' Hawk

This is Ike, a Harris' Hawk. Native to the American Southwest...I'm not really feeling like writing anything so just enjoy the photo.

Weird...more birds

The combination of some new models and a beautiful Saturday morning didn't leave me with much of a choice. I had to shoot some more at the raptor center. This handsome gentleman is the juvenile northern harrier that we got early on last semester. I know he has a stupid monkey face, but don't hold that against him.

TUVU

So this semester I switched birds at the raptor center. Eleanor is helping one of the newer hand feeders get the hang of things, and I have the lovely assignment of working with the beautiful young boy you see here. He's a turkey vulture, probably just in his second year of life. I think he's at the center due to multiple wing and leg injuries that were probably inflicted by a car. When he showed up he was a wild bird, no previous contact with humans. Things are going very well: he's getting used to me, allowing me to approach him, and eating off of my glove. The most impressive part is that I've only been working with him for a few weeks so if we can continue to progress at this rate he will be a great bird for education. I wish this was a testament to my skill with the birds, but I'm sure it has more to do with his personality (particularly his curiosity) than anything I'm doing. He still doesn't have a name, so any suggestions on that front would be most welcome. Please no plays on any nasty vulture habits (like vomiting). I refuse to call him Chuck or Ralph.

Lincoln Park Zoo

On the way home from break I stayed for a few days in Chicago with Marty. We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo one day, it was getting dark and really tough to shoot, but I managed to get a few workable photographs. This is one of them-a European white crane.