Mimetic Muscles: The Muscles of Expression

          Here something I decided to try out back in March of 2009, during my birthday week. Before I even knew the term existed, I was already Practicing Staycationing. I took 8 days off from work to test out my new camera equipment and spend time with my son. It was a great success and felt adventurous.
          Me and my wife knew that our funds weren’t going to be enough to jump on a plane to travel, so we planned to vacation in New York City or should I say Staycation. Ive always known how rich New York City is. Growing up I would just wander the city and discover the cool things there was to do. If theres something you want to do, New York probably has it, thats whats so cool. Me and my wifes philosophy was to just make sure we were dead tired everyday. We would avoid staying home and made sure we were out being somehow active. As you can see from the calender below, we did a pretty good job of keeping busy.
          Basically, there just is no limit to having fun and being active. Yes I know these are things people say (or just say), but for the people who really know me and my wife, know that we truly embody this and our attempt is to rub it off on as many people as possible and if that doesn’t work then we kidnap you.

Click highlighted titles to see photo album

Bronx Zoo 8.12.09                                                                      Boston New England 8.14.09

Little Red Light House 8.15.09                                                   Six Flags Great Adventures 8.17.09

High Line 8.18.09                                                                        The New York Botanical Garden 8.20.09

Kayaking 8.22.09                                                                       Robins Nintendo Wii Resort Party 8.23.09
photos were taken by Claudio Abreu

Song title: Rain Drops
Artist: Basement Jaxx
Album: Scars (2009)

Photobook can also be viewed at Shutterfly.com

          It pretty hard to find anything online about this guy. According to Wikipedia he represented the United Kingdom in the 2003 (Hannover, Germany) & 2005 ( Eindhoven, Netherlands) Trampoline World Championships coming in 5th both times.
          He’s also started to do some stunt work and has so far worked as a stunt double for Luke Goss (Prince Nuada) in 2008′s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”. He’s also currently working on the James McTeigue & Wachowski Brothers new film which I suspect is “Ninja Assassin” slated to hit theaters November 25th 2009.
          I’ll make sure to either update this post or create a new one, if anything new from him arises.

Visit my Damien Walters updated post
Visit Damien Walters Myspace Fan Site

          My first encounter with these beautiful birds was in January of 2008. I hadn’t even started moving in but I would bring small things here and there. One day I stepped out into my 15 storey balcony facing the east Bronx, I was admiring the view and the fact that I owned the sky, because nobody lived above me, when the biggest bird I had ever seen glided into my field of vision. It must’ve been about 5 feet over my head as it flew over my roof and continued passed my building. It hovered over my building for about 5 minutes until it disappeared. I was both honored and astonished. I had never seen anything so wild in my life. At first I exaggerated the story and lied to my friends that it must of been an Eagle. With a little bit of research I learned that it was in fact a Red Tailed Hawk and that they were a regular occurrence all over New York City. This was very exciting and my fascination grew.
          After my first encounter I saw the Bird(s) about once a month. I was itching to get some good shots of the bird, but I knew that with the camera I had at the time, it would be impossible unless it landed on my balcony. In Christmas of 2008 my wife got me my first SLR Canon rebel XSI which I then upgraded the stock 18-55mm lens to a 100-300mm telephoto zoom lens for farther shooting (with the hawks in mind of course). Literally minutes after testing my new lens out I spotted a hawk about a quarter to half a mile away and captured my fist decent shots of the bird.
Ever since I have been researching and learning about these amazing birds. In the spring of 2009 I captured a pair mating on nearby rooftops, Ive witnessed territorial battles: Hawk vs Hawk, Crow vs Hawk, other small birds vs Hawks. And of course Ive witnessed hunting behavior (my favorite).
          My love and respect grows everyday, I appreciate this small piece of wildlife that I get to witness from my balcony everyday.

A man who gets somethings he doesnt wish for but wants, is far luckier then one who wishes.        -Claudio Abreu

18-55mm; 2.4.09
My first good shot of this elusive creature

100-300mm; 2.25.09
Minutes after trying out my new lens I captured this shot. Felt like half a mile away

100-300mm; 3.7.09
Nicknamed: Softwing

100-300mm; 3.7.09
Nicknamed: Darkwing

100-300mm; 7.3.09
Looks like Softwing. You can tell its a female just based off its size. This was a huge bird and she was perched on my roof for some time.

100-300mm; 7.7.09
You can tell that this bird is relatively young. Its takes 3-4 years for the yellowish irises of their eyes to turn reddish brown.

100-300mm; 7.7.09
This one is an older bird and had a bigger wing span.

All photos were taken by Claudio Abreu in the neighborhood of 1889 Sedgwick ave Bronx NY

I couldn’t believe it my self when I 1st stepped on the Wii Fit balance board back in mid 2008 and it categorized me as being obese. I was shocked. My impression of an obese person was always those people you see on T.V. laid out on their bed weighing up to 600 lbs. For me this has always been embarrassing and although I would freely share this fact, I was never happy about it. A great proudness washed over me on June 10th 2009 when I crossed over from being Obese to Over weight. I hope never to cross that border again.


My weight on May 13th 2009 was: 248.0 lbs
My weight on June 11th 2009 is: 225.5 lbs