In a small ceremony on 4-4-2009 I married Alina, my girlfriend for over a year. She has had an incredibly positive influence on my life and this was the most incredible thing I have ever done. And I mean that. I've been all over the world, and done allot of things, but this is definitely the most amazing and moving. Alina and I wish to thank everyone involved, family and friends for the outpouring of support and love that is still overwhelming. Thank you.
Alina and I just after. Honestly, I was nervous having never been married before. It was also very moving since I've had a couple of times in my life where I thought I'd never see this day come. It was intense, and anyone that says getting married is not stressful or is easy no matter how small the wedding is.. must not have ever tried to get married! :)
The wedding ring on my finger is both a symbol of love and a badge of honor to me. Living through pancreititus and overcoming things in my life this moment is one I will treasure forever. We were married in a Hotel on the waterfront in Portland Oregon. It was really nice.
As you can see, this was just a 3min walk from our hotel. They said it would be raining but it was a bright sunny couple of days. I took 100s of pictures, but did not have nearly enough time to take as many as I wanted. There is SO much I want to do in Portland. Getting stuck in The Dalles has been difficult and we are going to try to get back as often as possible. Money makes this difficult but I have allot of pictures to take. Most of these pictures were taken with my Nikon D40 digital SLR. I bought a 55-200mm zoom lens for my Nikon, it will prove very useful when I eventually get a more powerful Nikon SLR. When that will be I don't know.. I'm thinking of playing the lottery because that's about the only way I can see upgrading right now! Of course I have other SLRs that are more powerful, but I find the D40 and Nikon to be really versatile and easy to use. If you were to ask my what kind of professional camera (SLR) to buy.. I would tell you to get a Nikon or a Canon. Right now I'm swinging towards Nikon but Canon has is a very good system too. Most of my gear and my other SLRs are Canon.
Here is a close-up on the geese on that log. Those two were there for almost two hours without moving much.
Don't ask me what these people where doing! They are not Chinese.. what's up with this!?
Sometimes pictures turn out that are really cool from chance shots. Take lots of pictures. I snapped this of someone holding a video camera down by waterfront park. My shutter speed was set just fast enough to capture a clear image in the foreground, but not the background. Usually motion causes this to be the other way around! I took this from a bus. It may have been because we were turning when I took the shot creating a strange optical illusion. Waterfront park is awesome, we'd love to go back down there and take pictures and even jump in the fountain.
Portland is a really clean and modern city to visit and live. The bad parts of down town have been cleaned up over the past 10 years or so.
However, you always have the street people. This guy had two shopping carts full of what looks like garbage. I myself once upon a time slept under a bridge in Portland. I know what it's like to live on the streets for a short time. It's not easy but it is possible and some people even chose to live that way. Portland has a large population of street people but most of them are not dangerous and humble. The funny thing is.. this guy got away with stealing two shopping carts from what looks like Safeway. I was once on the News back in 1999 or so for taking a shopping cart home to my apartment. I did not have a car and it was the only way to transport my groceries. They interview me right on the street. I was so mad later because they cut out the part where I told them I knew about the guy who comes by and picks up the carts where we leave them after we use them at our apartment building. When I moved into those apartments I was told it was ok and met a guy hired by Safeway to pickup the carts. Everybody knew they were not just going to end up in the river. But the news made me out to be a thief that did not care. Thankfully this is not the only time I've been on TV! :)
This area of Portland used to be a used tire dump. It now is really cleaned up and as you can see a really awesome place to walk down the waterfront. It is directly across from Omsi. A retired submarine is docked outside across the river.
Portland really was an awesome place.. we just did not have enough time. Our hotel had a pool and spy, and we had our honeymoon in the Residence inn Marriott Hotel. It was an incredible trip. I can't wait to get back to Portland for more pictures.
On the way home I shot a few pics in the gourge. Very high powered lines run from hydro-electric power plants contrast a washington state vista.
The gourge is an awesome place to take pictures. There was still some snow up there when we got back but not anymore! It got up to nearly 85 the day after.
I caught this shot from the road. Taking shots from a moving vehicle is something that takes allot of learning! Make sure your shutter speed is high so there is no blur and sometimes you get a lucky shot.
A train goes down through the Gourge.
We came home to an incredible surprise. Flowers were blooming for only about a week on a bush in my back yard and they attracted 1000s of honey bees and two humming birds. I got a number of shots that were very lucky. This was shot with a 200mm power lens and cropped. This bird is literally smaller then my thumb here.
It is rare to catch a hummer not in flight, and even more rare to catch one in a good lighting situation. They don't stay put for long, and they zoom arround so fast that getting a focus lock can be difficult even with the best of gear.
It moves so fast, the little head was watching me. It took me nearly 2 hours to get this shot. I had to squat completely still and then slowly raise myself up when it landed to get the shot.
At first I could only shoot it through the bush getting glimpses blurred by leaves.
I sure wish I could have had a more clear shot here, but I thought it was worth putting up anyway. Here the hummer is flying and drinking at the same time as they must do nearly all day long in order to keep up there very high metabolism.
A few rare moments I got to see when a humming bird ruffles it's feathers. Straining to shoot through the bush, I managed to capture a few shots of it cleaning itself and being relaxed. One false move.. and I would not see this humming bird for at least another half hour or so.
Even though this one is blurred as well, it is interesting. They move so fast that getting a focus lock is very hard let alone setting up a shot. I managed to snap just one that was in focus enough. In this shot the bird's wings are moving so fast that it looks like it has not wings at all!
And then it landed as shown in the other pictures giving me a near perfect view. This was an incredible shot I've been waiting to get for a long time.
This may be the other half of a mating pair here. I shot this one on the day before the one above. That was just a lucky shot after waiting for a long time on my knees for the right moment. I leaned up and out and snapped a burst of about five shots before it flew away showing an incredible iridescent green color. Usually, male birds have the more colorful feathers but I'm not sure.
The shot I was waiting for, they landed in the clear with good lighting only about three times over several hours of waiting for the right shot.
And what would my website be without BUGS. This is a true bug, one that is harmless but will leave a big stink if you mess with it. It was shot with my Canon 10D. A very versatile and robust digital SLR. It's an older camera, but it's features and abilities were way ahead of it's time and it's very well built. It also has an old-style flashgun hookup so I can shoot directed lighting shots without buying a very expensive macro flash unit. It came out about the same time as the Nikon D70 but had better features. A much higher resolution screen, and easy to use controls as well as a very informative LCD and in viewfinder setup. The 10D was eclipsed by the 20 and 30 and 40Ds. But you can still find this pro-class digital SLR in second hand camera stores today for a real bargain. It can shoot over 3Fps and it accepts many cannon lenses that are still being manufactured.This was a great trip and I want to express my deepest thanks again to my mom, dad, aunt Karolyn and my family and friends for making our wedding possible.
-Alina and Gabe Beasley 4-28-2009
