cputeq
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Upload & Sell: On
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Very sad to see him go 
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I first met Dave by accident at a local park. I was using my new D90 and by chance just happened to visit this park on a very cold day to try it out on some pelicans and egrets.
Just as I was about to leave, I see this gent walking in from the woods with a tripod, sidekick and his 50D and white lens mounted.
I thought "oh gosh a white lens guy" (too much dpreview reading) and started to leave, but thought I would be nice to ask if he got any "good ones".
We spend the next 10 minutes or so in the freezing wind chatting it up and talking about birding, his new 50D and my new D90 - he told me his forum name at FM and would almost always PM me comments on my birds and encouragement when I got really ticked off at my lack of birdy skills.
He also gave me his cell and would say "you can find these birds roosting over there at this time of year" etc. etc. A real wealth of local information on birding, and I really regret not taking up his offer to go birding when it had warmed up (sometimes life gets in the way).
I met him almost a year later at another park, quite by accident, after I rented the 7D and 400mm f/5.6L. I struck up a conversaion with him, not knowing it was him!, and happened to say "yeah there's this really good birder on FM that goes by Dave in LA, he uses the 400L also with great results".
He said "That's me!"
"Holy crap sorry Dave, I didn't remember what you looked like! Do you remember me?"
"Are you Jeremy?"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah I remember you posting at FM that you had been frustrated at birding and was going to try renting the Canon and the 400"
and we talked for a good hour after that, practing with the random fly-by ducks.
I never saw his duckies posted from that day (doubtless much better than my results).
Rest in Peace Dave, truly a nice guy (he once surprised an old man, a complete stranger to him, with a nice print photo of the man's dog...apparently the old man and dog would frequent the park where I originally met Dave)
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Dave had always wished for a new car and he got his new chevy equinox in Aug 2009, his apartment had water damage and a couple of months ago, he exchanged it for a freshly remodeled one, Dave had been very happy the last few months and except for health problems (and he never complained about them) he was happy. He was happiest when he could get on the photography forums and visit with his friends and maybe help someone make a picture even better. I am thankful that God allowed us to be friends. For those of you who never met Dave in person, here's a picture I took of him a year ago and emailed to him. Like most photographers, he did not like to have his picture taken but he did laugh when I sent him this picture. It's wonderful to see so many people that Dave touched here. So here's my version of Dave and the Mocking bird, yes he did lay down on the ground to get good pictures. 