It came from my hard drive
A couple of things I've had laying around forever, and am now posting in lieu of coming up with anything new.
That's a golden eagle. In 2002 I was in Utah to do some work at BYU and I was crashing with my friend and frequent coauthor, Kent Sanders. One day I was driving back to the ranch after a long day in collections and as I zoomed around a bend on the highway I realized that just off on the shoulder was a dead dear being eaten by a golden eagle. I passed them too fast to get a good look, and the eagle didn't take off, so I drove on about a quarter of mile, turned around, and started creeping back, this time with my camera out. I guess the eagle thought a car sneaking up slowly was more suspicious than one that whipped by in an instant. When I was about 50 yards away it took off and started leisurely flapping away. I gunned it, held the camera out at arm's length toward my open passenger side window, and snapped the above. This was the dark ages before I got my first digital camera, so I had to wait a couple of weeks for the prints to know if I had gotten anything at all. It's not the world's best eagle picture, but it's my best, and considering the kinetic and technological circumstances, I'm pretty happy with it.
When I was at the University of Oklahoma, the zoo grad students decided to sell t-shirts. We had a contest to come up with the best design. My winning design is above. Frustratingly, after all of us had voted as a group to put the design on gray shirts, the tool who took the design to the apparel company had them put it on some godawful yellowish-cream-colored shirts. Did I mention that the aforementioned tool was the only one of us to have voted against the gray? Anyway, the shirts did not sell well, and my design languished in obscurity. Until now.
That's a golden eagle. In 2002 I was in Utah to do some work at BYU and I was crashing with my friend and frequent coauthor, Kent Sanders. One day I was driving back to the ranch after a long day in collections and as I zoomed around a bend on the highway I realized that just off on the shoulder was a dead dear being eaten by a golden eagle. I passed them too fast to get a good look, and the eagle didn't take off, so I drove on about a quarter of mile, turned around, and started creeping back, this time with my camera out. I guess the eagle thought a car sneaking up slowly was more suspicious than one that whipped by in an instant. When I was about 50 yards away it took off and started leisurely flapping away. I gunned it, held the camera out at arm's length toward my open passenger side window, and snapped the above. This was the dark ages before I got my first digital camera, so I had to wait a couple of weeks for the prints to know if I had gotten anything at all. It's not the world's best eagle picture, but it's my best, and considering the kinetic and technological circumstances, I'm pretty happy with it.
When I was at the University of Oklahoma, the zoo grad students decided to sell t-shirts. We had a contest to come up with the best design. My winning design is above. Frustratingly, after all of us had voted as a group to put the design on gray shirts, the tool who took the design to the apparel company had them put it on some godawful yellowish-cream-colored shirts. Did I mention that the aforementioned tool was the only one of us to have voted against the gray? Anyway, the shirts did not sell well, and my design languished in obscurity. Until now.
Labels: Animals, Art, Relics of a Bygone Age
posted by Dr. Vector at 5:39 PM
5 Comments:
I'd buy it!
Very nice eagle pic. It seems like most of my eagle sightings are made from moving cars...
Right before I left OU, Edie gave me the VERY LAST Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy shirt as a going-away present. It's the one with all the animals pumping iron and the mudpuppy has the tiny weights and is saying "me too!" and the lamprey is sad because it doesn't even have paired fins. I treasure it.
When we're at OMNH this fall, we should by Zoo Dept mugs. Jennifer Larson designed them. They kick ass. I had one, but I forgot it at OU, and then it fell out of Kyle Davies' luggage on the way to SVP last year because the TSA didn't zip up his bag after they searched it.
Congrats Matt - I've just awarded you with a Thinking Blogger Award, for which you get your own snazzy little icon thing: go here to find out more. The post in which I gave you the award can be found here.
Oh, and I've also just tagged you with the 'why do I blog?' meme: my article nominating you can be found here, and the meme tracker that shows the spread of the thread can be found here.
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