In a post-ecuadorian world

Well, I made it home, though, home is now a busy place. I picked up some more hours at work and I've been busy doing that since I got back. But, its been nice to have some sort of decent amount of cash flow. The trip itself was phenomenal, way past any of our expectations. I've only had time to go through half of the first two days of photos! 3000 in total to go through.

For example, this was our first snake of the second night! And we ended up finding three specimens of this coral snake.










Anyway, I'll post more on the trip on later dates. Ecuador provided some of the best herping I've ever experienced. Our last night we went out and found several snakes...3 were species we had yet to see in 3 weeks of night hiking and the other species was our most common species of coral. It can't get better than that! Met a lot of really cool people from all over and I got to see some amazing places/things. One day I'll be back there...for now I just wish I was still there.

Ecuador 2008

Ecuador 2008 I write this on the eve of my departure to Ecuador. A place rich in herpetofaunal diversity. My main goal on the trip is to see, observe, learn, and document as much as possible about the the places and creatures I'll be visiting. I hope to add a great many snakes, lizards, frogs, salamanders, birds, mammals, and fish, to my ever growing life list of life.

Photography, GPS, and daily journaling will be my formats of documentation on this trip. Mostly, I'll be recording the specimen and locality remarks for all reptiles and amphibians encountered. Other creatures of interest will be noted also. Currently, I have 12 Gbs of memory; so more than enough to capture everything I observe scurring on the forest floor or sliding along atop us in the limbs of the canopy.

I just purchased a new camera today, the 40D. It's been just shy of 5 years since I obtianed my last camera the 300D or otherwise known as the Digital Rebel (the first one). It was a nice and much needed upgrade. I got the kit that came with the 17-85mm IS lens. I'm looking forward to working with it and new photography subjects in the upcoming journey.

Packing and getting ready has been as stressful this time as any time before a trip. I'll be glad to be gone from all of it for a good long while. Upon my return I'll have two new snakes to care for. They are Bitis caudalis and my favoriate species of snake. I have extremely looking forward to obtaining them.

In just about 28 hours I'll be in Ecuador! I don't know what communication will be like. But I'll update everyone with e-mails when and if I can get access to the internet. I just want to thank Adrain, Peyton, and my room mates for watching over my stuff while I'm out of the states, thanks again.

Nathan Shepard

Updated flickr

I updated by badly void of updates flickr account today! Mainly herp trip shots up from May, June, July of 2007. The rest of 2007 will be uploaded shorty, as time permits. Here are a couple 'best of' 's from this past update:






















....How fun that time was when gas was only 2.49 a gallon!! Instead of every weekend or so, I've only gotten to herp there once this late spring! So, sad...

On another note, I've been trying to get everything ready for my trip to Ecuador this summer. Still have a few other things to get out of the way. Anyway enjoy, FLICKr

The aim of this blog

The aim of this blog is simple...moments and things of interest out of my life or from the lives around me. This includes news articles, my current projects, trip reports, photographs, album reviews, and etc. The subject material is diverse (hip-hop, herps, photography, life, etc.).

Pictured below is the author with one of his favorite species - Farancia abacura.

[edited 9-Sept-2012:  repair missing photo link]