David Blackwell.'s photostream  

Big Game Hunting is not a game.

Perhaps you remember the series of animal portraits I posted some time back, with the polar bears, penguins, etc. I created the rhino picture at that same time but never posted it. Until today that is.

Another one of my relatives to share with you.

I promised to share more pictures of my relatives with you. This is uncle Maxim. I was told that he wasn't necessarily the brain in the family. During the 1970s he undertook a jungle safari in Africa. This is the last known picture of him. He was obviously out to impress the ladies. His camera was found on the ground by a ranger shortly after a girl reported an incident with a gorilla. We don't know what became of him since he was never heard of again.

My line of ancestors goes way back in history. I own family portraits of ancestors going back to the 16th century. I thought I'd start the year by sharing some of these portraits with you. Here is a crop of a larger scan of a painting by Dutch artist Willem van de Dijken. It shows my ancestor Romanus de Seltzame and is dated 1586. We like to believe he was the founder of the Carneval Tradition in the Rhineland. To this day folks dress up in costumes and celebrate carneval in the rhineland every year. We don't like to believe some of the other theories around.

Best viewed large in the lightbox.

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This is Alex. He is Olga's brother. Alex is over from Russia to visit us for the Christmas Days. This, of course, calls for a photo to mark the occasion. Here he is proudly showing off his fine cooking skills.

Gee, I love it when I'm on holiday. Lot's of time to play. Not so sure about my victims. :-)

Giovanni, thank you for the inspiration!

Strobist: 1 Dlite 4 at 5.5 into silver umbrella to the right of the camera about 2 meters from subject. Natural window light from left and center as fill.