The Misadventures of Jacob Quesadilla: a little bit of background information.......

Before I start ranting about all my wild adventures, I thought it would be fair to give you a bit of background information first. First and foremost- I don't have a TV in my house (It's been that way ever since I was 8....I’m 14 now) and I don't have a video game console of any kind. Second of all, my parents are currently in the process of getting a divorce and if I want something done, I have to do it myself. Another fact about myself: I live in the ghetto, and go to the infamous Phineas Banning High School (It's actually not that bad). Now I’ll talk a bit about my interests. I love photography and nature, hence my interest in wildlife photography. This all started last year when I stumbled onto some birders at a nearby park, they were having some sort of bird walk and I decided to follow them around. Now this is a park that I’ve been going to ever since I was three, but that day I saw an entirely different side of it. I was dumbstruck at just how so many living things inhabit a park that is smack in the middle of the city (right next to a huge refinery too). This just struck a chord deep inside me and I’ve been birding ever since, seeking out all the precious little gems in the most unexpected of places. However it's not quite as easy as it sounds, especially since my parents aren't exactly there to drive me around. That’s why I’m known by most birders for taking public transportation just about everywhere, even if it means waking up at 4:00am and riding for 3 hours just to get there before sunrise. Later on I became more interested in wildlife photography. This mainly started when I was on one of Martin Byhower's monthly bird walks at Harbor Park and we stumbled upon a stunning and rare bird. We stumbled upon a tropical kingbird and I just had my tiny little point and shoot camera. There was no way I could zoom into that bird and get a good shot, so I borrowed some binoculars and pointed the camera through the lens, and the result was a picture of a tropical kingbird (it wasn't exactly the best picture). But of course it wasn't enough, and when they told me that there wasn't sufficient detail to prove our claim, I went back (I was a man on a mission). This time I met up with a professional wildlife photographer (Steve Wolfe) and we decided to team up and look for the bird. No luck, that is until after he left. He was perched on a branch some 50ft away from me; I called Steve and told him to come back. I slowly inched closer and closer, and finally I got my shot. By the time Steve came the bird had flown away (never saw it again), but he was impressed with the fact that I managed to get a good shot with such a pathetic little camera and he decided to teach me some of the ups and downs of wildlife photography. And that’s basically my story (asleep yet?), but of course by now I have considerably more experience and better camera then I started with. I guess now its time to start talking about some more interesting stories before I bore you all to death.
-Jacob