A little about me

[dagray]

Hi, my name is David Gray, but I go by Dave as in "Dave's not here man; Dave went to the store." I have been in federal service since the age of 17 when I joined the Navy on the delayed entry program (ended up giving Uncle Sam's Canoe Club four years active and 12 years reserve). While in the reserve I worked varrious occupations from pole barn construction, furniture sales and repair, finish carpentry (primarily bathroom remodling), working in lumber mills (fingerjoint and lamination making parts for the door and window companies like and including Anderson doors and windows), to working 15 years as an Army civilian (five years federal armed security, 1.5 years as a toxic material handler/explosive operator, just under 9 years as an ammunition inspector).

I have owned my own photography business on the side since 2009, and currently my bread and butter is as a secretary (as in answering phones and typing memos) which is titled Program Assistant (but hey a secretary by any other name is still a secretary).

I raised sword tails and sold them to the biology lab and pet stores in high school as well as trying to get Betta to breed (I kept two males in a 10 gallon tank with an opaque tank divider between them and the water level down below the tank divider). I also raised rabbits in high school to sell as well as a source of meat. With the rabbits I hit five markets (earthworms, rabbit manure, rabbit hides, live rabbits, and dressed out rabbits).

I have been married for almost five years and have two sons (12 and 2.5) which my youngest was born when I was 40 and will turn three in May.

I enjoy fishing for trout, salmon, steelhead; I enjoy hunting game with my camera, but will draw tags to help feed the family (besides upland bird and deer are very tasty).

I got back into the aquariums while my wife and I were dating as someone before we had met had given the 12 year old (then seven) a 10 gallon tank with a siamese algae eater of about six inches in length and a Boseman's Rainbow. This tank didn't have a heater so the water was mid 60s to low 70s depending on the house tempurature so my work began to get a heater and get the tank set up correctly. I then purchased some mystic blue swordtails (a variation of a neon swordtail) and bred them and sold to the local pet store for enough to buy feed and supplies. Next I ventured into a freshwater shrimp tank and have kept cherry shrimp, amano shrimp, Singapore shrimp (also known as wood shrimp, flower shrimp, or bamboo shrimp), and even tried my hand at Sulawesi Cardinal Shrimp. Back in July I made major changes to the 20 gallon shrimp tank in the bedroom by changing substrate layers (bottom is one inch round gravel with eco-complete over that and regular pea or smaller sized aquarium gravel over that as this tank is filtered by reverse flow on an undergravel filtration system). The bedroom tank in our room sparked me to get into angels (75 gallon tank) as well as make some changes to the tank in my son's room (20 gallon standard) where I moved some livestock to the 75 gallon due to the catfish (Raphael Striped Catfish) outgrowing the 20 gallon tank. After growing the angels for a month and a half I purchased some discus at pea to dime sized and raised them up to where they are now.

Back when Tim's Tropical fish web board was active I was a moderator over there (no I don't have the time for that here and the mods here do a fine job, as well as currently belonging to www.thefishbox.com and TAF II (the angelfish forum).

Photography is one of my passions, and I love the tropical fish so I have made a show tank I can use as a background for other photos as well as always having subjects who don't cry and throw tantrums to photograph (they do hide sometimes and one has to be patient to get the fish to present itself in a manor condusive to a good photo).

I am a combat veteran of Desert Shield and Desert Storm as well as an employee and a business owner. My family comes first then my job as I will always be able to provide for my family.

God bless,
Dave

[MGKelly]

Welcome Dave!!

Joe

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Welcome aboard Dave.

Nice biography.

You wore many hats my friend but the hat that impresses me the most is you serving in the military and helping to protect the world.

Hope we get to see some of your photographs.

Good luck with everything.

Jeff

[sdshawn]

Hello Dave,

I was scanning the list of sponsors and was surprised to see Boardman Oregon on the list. I grew up in Irrigon and graduated from Riverside in the late 80's. Glad to see a fellow aquarium enthusiast from my old stomping grounds so thought I'd say hello.

God bless,

Shawn

[dagray]

Shawn, thank you. I really like my aquariums, but have to pre plan buying supplies due to not having a decent pet store around. I do all my aquarium supply shopping online as well as when I purchase aquatic animals I purchase them online.
I grew up with grandparents that lived in Pendleton and Irrigon so spent many summers here.

God Bless you too.

[rickztahone]

Thanks for sharing your bio Dave. I am a photographer myself and love doing portraiture. Thanks for sharing the website.

[dagray]

Thank you Rick. Photography is a passion I am trying to turn into a living wage so that in a few years when I retire from my federal position I can stay active. I will be eligible for a buyout in five years if one is available for early retirement at 49 years of age or if I wait until I am 55 I will have 31 years federal service (civilian and military combined).

[rickztahone]

Thank you Rick. Photography is a passion I am trying to turn into a living wage so that in a few years when I retire from my federal position I can stay active. I will be eligible for a buyout in five years if one is available for early retirement at 49 years of age or if I wait until I am 55 I will have 31 years federal service (civilian and military combined).

That is amazing. Thank you for your service.

What is your plan or timeline for your photography? What will you focus on? We can always discus this via pm if you'd like.

[dagray]

I have been doing weddings and portraits since January 2009 to pay for me to be able to shoot wildlife and landscapes with wildlife being super fun for me as it is a challenge to get close enough to some of the critters and get a good shot before they leave. My plan is if there is a buyout offered in five years to take it and that will get me health insurance for my family and a small monthly retirement stipend and then to make up the difference of income with the photography. Worst case scenario is I end up working 11 more years and retire at 55 and run my photography business full time. The reason I don't take it full time now is that I have too much time invested toward this retirement and I threw my military retirement away after 16 years combined active duty and reserve Navy.

I started shooting in 1994 with an old Pentax Spotmatic 35mm body and Pentax M42 screw mount lenses and upgraded a couple years later to a Pentax ME Super with bayonet mount lenses. Since I had the glass I purchased a Pentax K20d in Dec 2008, and have upgraded to a K-7, then a K-5, and finally a K-3. I am hoping later to pick up a medium format kit (Pentax digital) and some old manual focus lenses as I think I would like the extra space in the frame of the photo and the extra detail medium format can offer.

I also have a 9-5 job that provides my family's bread and butter and another side business of health supplements and herbal wraps as my wife and I use some of the products and this allows us to save money on them.

[rickztahone]

You seem to have a well thought out plan. I have never shot with Pentax but I have used some of the lenses converted to one of my mirrorless cameras.

If you are interested in viewing any of my shots please See Here

Most of my photos are on Flickr. I do not want to maintain my on website, lol.

[dagray]

Rick,
I use Zenfolio as it allows me to create galleries as well as having an e-commerce ability for others to buy prints and other photo products from a third party vendor. I get the money minus the commission for the sales (commission is 12%) and I pay $120.00 per year for the zenfolio site which is inexpensive where web space is concerned.

Very nice work Rick.