Hello members of The Furry Forums

[Valdyr]

As my subject title has already said, hello members of...this forum.

Allow me to introduce myself.  My full furry name is Valdyr Nordvindr ("Wolf of the North Wind" in Old Norse - over the top right?), but I go by Valdyr (Vahl-deer), or Valdy when people are feeling affectionate.  I'm an arctic wolf, an animal I work directly with at my part time job at a wolf conservation center (captive breeding for release and behavioral studies), and one I have a deep emotional as well as intellectual affinity for.  You can read more about my fursona on my Wikifur Article, but there honestly isn't much to tell.  It's just me in canid form.

I've been involved in the fandom for about two years now, but have only today decided to join your forum.  Why?  Because it seems like a cool place, of course.  As for my role in the fandom, I can't claim any of the fantastic artwork or highly creative stuff as my own.  Rather, I'm one of the administrators over at FurNation.  But I feel that I do my part to help this fandom of ours.

I'm not sure how much other information exactly is desired, so I'll keep info about my personal life short, unless others would like to know more (in which case, feel free to ask).  I'm 16 years old, though turning 17 in less than a month.  Outside of school, my job with wolves, and running FurNation, I enjoy learning as much as a can about my intelletcual topics of interest - which range from science to music to philosophy - and photography.  I've only been doing the latter for about two years, but you can see some of my work in my flickr gallery or my Deviant Art (links in sig).  I also play the guitar, working mainly in folk, metal, and rock (though I listen to all sorts of music).  After I graduate HS this June (I skipped the last year of middle school) , I hope to study either physics, biology, or economics in college, and of course to keep up with this fandom that I love.

To wrap up, I hope to have a great time on this gem of a website.  Talk to you on the "real" boards.   

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Welcome to TFF!
Glad you decided to join us.
I wish I worked with wolves. You're lucky there.
I'm interested in photography myself and I really want to learn to play the guitar so it's cool to see that you like that stuff too.
Hope you enjoy it here.

[Nrein]

Hey there, welcome to the community!
Photography is an amazing thing, I myself love it. It's my main contribution to the fandom, next to *hopefully* my writing.
Seems like you've really got everything in your life planned out for the coming years, that's always a good thing to have!
I also see that you're in NY too, glad to meet another fur from the State =P

[Alexei]

Hey, nice to meet you.
You're a really talented photographer, I'm going to fave some of that stuff.

What guitar do you play?

[Valdyr]

Welcome to TFF!
Glad you decided to join us.
I wish I worked with wolves. You're lucky there.
I'm interested in photography myself and I really want to learn to play the guitar so it's cool to see that you like that stuff too.
Hope you enjoy it here.

Thank you!  If at any point you'd like to discuss either photography or guitar (though I'm better at the former), feel free to contact me.

Hey there, welcome to the community!
Photography is an amazing thing, I myself love it. It's my main contribution to the fandom, next to *hopefully* my writing.
Seems like you've really got everything in your life planned out for the coming years, that's always a good thing to have!
I also see that you're in NY too, glad to meet another fur from the State =P

Hey, thanks for the welcome!  It is interesting to find another NY fur - I find less than I would expect given the population of the state.  You're a photographer for the fandom?  What do you shoot for the fandom, conventions etc.?  It sounds interesting.

As for the life planning thing, I'm a planner.  It's what I do.   

Hey, nice to meet you.
You're a really talented photographer, I'm going to fave some of that stuff.

What guitar do you play?

Thanks, that's a big compliment!  I'm glad you like my photography. 

As for the guitar, I play three as of right now.  I have some 50 year-old classical acoustic from Spain, so I always cite the manufacturer on that one as being "some guy in Spain."  As for the other two, I have an American-made Fender Stratocaster with standard pickups, maple fretboard, sunburst pattern, which I use for rock/blues, and a Paul Reed Smith SE Singlecut with humbucking pickups, rosewood fretboard, black-out paint job, which I use for metal.


Thank you all for the rapid and friendly welcomes.  I think I'm going to like it here.

[Alexei]

As for the guitar, I play three as of right now.  I have some 50 year-old classical acoustic from Spain, so I always cite the manufacturer on that one as being "some guy in Spain."  As for the other two, I have an American-made Fender Stratocaster with standard pickups, maple fretboard, sunburst pattern, which I use for rock/blues, and a Paul Reed Smith SE Singlecut with humbucking pickups, rosewood fretboard, black-out paint job, which I use for metal.


Thank you all for the rapid and friendly welcomes.  I think I'm going to like it here.

Ah, my dad has a fender as well, excellent guitar.
I'm not huge on guitar but I play piano quite often.

Your welcome!
It's great to see another member that cares about spelling and punctuation.

[Nrein]

Hey, thanks for the welcome!  It is interesting to find another NY fur - I find less than I would expect given the population of the state.  You're a photographer for the fandom?  What do you shoot for the fandom, conventions etc.?  It sounds interesting.

As for the life planning thing, I'm a planner.  It's what I do.   

Yeah. Though, if memory serves me correctly, your County is waaaay down south from where I am
And, right now I just do general photographs. Scenery and such, some animals, etc.
When I get done with College, or start getting in some money, I'll go to conventions and photograph some.
Though I'm also into filmography, guess you could say it's my hobby.

And, planning is the best thing to do!

[Valdyr]

Ah, my dad has a fender as well, excellent guitar.
I'm not huge on guitar but I play piano quite often.

Your welcome!
It's great to see another member that cares about spelling and punctuation.

Piano is beautiful.  I'm always a bit envious of those who can play the piano well, as there are so many beautiful pieces for piano that just don't sound right on guitar, like the works of Chopin or Satie.

And yes, I'm all about the proper writing 

Yeah. Though, if memory serves me correctly, your County is waaaay down south from where I am
And, right now I just do general photographs. Scenery and such, some animals, etc.
When I get done with College, or start getting in some money, I'll go to conventions and photograph some.
Though I'm also into filmography, guess you could say it's my hobby.

And, planning is the best thing to do!

Yeah, my county is technically part of the greater NYC area.  Midtown Manhattan is 18 miles from my house.

General photography is kinda what I do as well.  I clearly specialize in nature photography from my gallery, but I'd love to do portraits and fine art photography as well.  The problem is that wildlife photography is one of the most expensive types, and as a high schooler, I have a limited budget.  Although I'm working on raising money for a bunch of new equipment right now, as I'd like to do portraits for money.

Filmography is awesome, though I'm a still guy.

[Alexei]

Piano is beautiful.  I'm always a bit envious of those who can play the piano well, as there are so many beautiful pieces for piano that just don't sound right on guitar, like the works of Chopin or Satie.

And yes, I'm all about the proper writing 

I agree with that, I love classical piano but I mostly write my own stuff now.

[Nrein]

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
I'm thankful that I don't have to do much traveling for really nice shots, the Adirondack mountains being practically on my back porch, haha.
What have you got for equipment??
Right now, I just have three cameras; my new Toshiba 16x Megapixel, a Canon Digital SLR (don't ask the type, I only loan it from my dad ) and an older Canon that uses this thing called film (inside joke to that.)

[Valdyr]

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
I'm thankful that I don't have to do much traveling for really nice shots, the Adirondack mountains being practically on my back porch, haha.
What have you got for equipment??
Right now, I just have three cameras; my new Toshiba 16x Megapixel, a Canon Digital SLR (don't ask the type, I only loan it from my dad ) and an older Canon that uses this thing called film (inside joke to that.)

I'm pretty skimpy on equipment as well, being a high school student.  I too have three cameras that I use regularly.  My main is a Canon EOS Rebel XS (1000D), which is the lowest-level current Canon DSLR, but it does the job (photography is mostly about composition and exposure anyway), and in terms of lenses I have the default 18-55mm f 3.5/5.6 kit lens, as well as my main lens, which is a 70-300mm f 4/5.6 telephoto lens, and is probably Canon's best non-professional telephoto lens.  I also have a Canon AE-1 35mm film camera which I use for the occasional portrait and candid street photography (much more "fluid" and less intimidating than a giant DSLR).  From time to time, I also use my iPhone for photography, again for the candid street shots.  It's actually pretty awesome, with an f 2.8 lens and whatnot.

I'm saving up, and just about there, on a serious equipment upgrade however.  Some time in the next few weeks, I will have a Canon EOS 7D DSLR, 50mm f1.8 lens, 70-200mm f 2.8 lens, 1.4x teleconverter, and a bounce flash on the way.  I also want a Leica M7 or Zeiss Ikon film camera at some point, but even more quadruple-digit photography stuff is out of this high schooler's reach.  I'm already going to be spending about $4000 as it is.

The main reason for the rapid upgrade is that I was offered by the wolf place I work at to be their contracted photographer.

[Nrein]

Very nice!
The biggest thing I've ever photographed for was the Tour of the Battenkill, which is still pretty big (being the biggest Bike Race in our Country), though my dad got way more shots then I did

[Z1FF]

hey arctic friend ^^ whats up? oh, you already told that C= hum, i guess i can say you are a smart one (do i have permission to? well, too bad!) well, as i'm reading it, besides loving wolves, don't have much in common, you're a tad to brained for me but, i hope to see ya around buuuddy =D  ho, forgot to say, i'm Dakes. ,ister Liro if you want nah, don't do thats, it was my father, no mah ^^ =P

[Ares the Ram]

Hello and welcome to our forums. Im Macid, the Lynx, and Its always nice to see another cold weather animal join us.

[Moongaze]

Welcome to the boards! 

Nice guitar collection.  I'm a player myself.  I have two 7 string guitars, an Ibanez RG7321 with Duncan pickups, and a Washburn (discontinued) WG 587.  I'm just a typical metal head.  Bb standard tuning...  Yeah.  xP'

Anywho... enjoy it here!