Duff's Photography Collection

I took these photos and give permission for anyone to post them anywhere they may serve a decent purpose. The only thing I ask is that you leave the reference to my site, or crop it out and add it back in so that anybody can see where the picture came from. So, the pictures are really sort of free. I actually get that little smidgeon of advertising for the use of the photos. Fair, right?

H o m e

Of course, if you're interested in purchasing the highest resolution possible and the right to put your own caption on there, you can email me and we can talk about that too!    -- Duff

Duff's Adventures in Trucking

"See the country, and get paid for it." This was the pitch of a large trucking firm that actively recruited green drivers such as myself, but fartherback in the days when trucking was first de-regulated.

I would hear established truckers sneer over the CB at this over-simplification of their profession. "As if all there was to driving a truck was holdin' on to the steering wheel and enjoyin' the scenery!"

The Hoover Dam

A canyon in Utah

Today, I admit that this was the job I most loved and most hated in my entire life. Truly, the challenges presented were a crash course in how the way things really are. It can be wildly insane -- the government, the companies, the rank-and-file drivers, and the companies that ship and receive. Then, there's the public perception of it all that I was such an ignorant part of until I drove a mile in a trucker's shoes.

Or, perhaps it was closer to one million miles.

I will just say that more truckers should do things like this. True, anything that is recorded while a driver is operating can be subpeonaed later under certain circumstances, and that can be good or bad. So, maybe it's best for drivers to not tell the whole world what they're doing, or for lawsuit filers to not press the maximum advantage in a way that will keep us all from seeing a lot of things that are really cool. Just a thought.

I saw every single one of the lower forty-eight states between 1996 and 2000, and a couple of Canadian provinces to boot. And, I realized what a shame it would be to ride without my pentax camera and even a videocamera mounted to my dash.

"Cluck, cluck, I just fell out of a chicken truck!" Fort Smith, AR

Here's a couple bushes I snapped in Southern Arizona. I'll upload more as I go.

Reptile Gardens is the coolest reptile zoo I've ever been to. It is not to be missed if you are a closet herpetologist like me in the vicinity of Mount Rushmore, SD.

I suggest getting there in the morning so that the black mambas rush the glass as you are the first visitor that they see going by their enclosures.

<< A couple of arrow-poison frogs

I tried my hand at gator-wrestling! >> Just kidding, this is a trained and insured employee who looks like the Duff-man.>>

These are all featured under that big geodesic dome section.

<< A deadly Mexican cascavel, like a States rattler with a little cobra-like neurotoxin mixed in. Kills hundreds every year in the Mexican cane fields.

These are the crocs that were featured in that James Bond movie -- Live and Let Live, I think it was. The stunt man almost didn't. >>

<< A beautiful chameleon.

A walk near Fort Smith, AR

I hope this poor black racer wasn't suffering from malnutrition or internal parasites to make it all kinked up like this. I thought at the time I'd simply startled it, but after never seeing the behavior again in dozens of specimens I wonder. >>

<< A redwing blackbird.

Canoeing the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge

Disclaimer: Yes I took this picture without a telescopic lens, but I was not driving the boat Mr. Park Ranger, sir. (There's a reason why I named this file "Godzilla vs Whoadan.")

Here's a fossil I found in upstate NY, probably a byrozoan from before the dinosaurs.

There are few snakes I have ever found in the wild that I could not identify immediately, but my best guess here is an Eastern Milk snake whose coloration mimics the mildly venomous neroidia water snakes that are also found in the area. It could also be a brown corn snake, also called a red rat snake.

I found these tomato-like berries growing in the same area. The flowers and leaves look eggplant-like. It's definitely in the nightshade family.

Found this footprint in the garage. No we're cutting down a lot of brush and taking other measures.