Dave's Photo & Travelblogue

Demon’s Bane Book Cover Contest

Two important things:

• Here’s the prospective book cover for my upcoming novel, Demon’s Bane!
• You could win a free copy of the book! To enter, just comment on this blog post by Nov. 30th, 2009.

Thanks to the six friends who are in the cover photo. Bob, Nadia, Jim, Chung, Zippy, and Mr. Excitement: I will keep your names a secret for your own protection.

To view in higher resolution, just click on the photo:

This is a battle scene at night, lit up by a globe of magical light above the combatants.

To enter the drawing, which ends on Nov. 30th 2009, just leave a (non-spam) comment on this post to let me know what you think of the cover.  I’m still open to minor modifications.  Is it awesome?  Does it suck?  Is the text okay?  If you saw this cover in a bookstore, would you pick up the book and take a look inside?  The winner will receive an autographed copy of Demon’s Bane once the book is in print, sent free of charge anywhere in the world that has post.

The photo was taken in Munich with a Nikon D90, a Nikon SB-600, and a Vivitar 383.  You can see the Vivitar in the back with a red gel (a.k.a. the fireball). One subject in the photo is from the Taipei Zoo, although the wolf’s charred backside was only digitally damaged. No wolves were harmed in the creation of this cover. In addition, Bob was not shot with an arrow (which he then had to rip out from his own arm), and Chung was not mauled in the leg by a wolf.

I sincerely hope Nadia didn’t actually throw any fireballs at anyone after I taught her that spell.

Update: see the revised cover here! It’s an illustration instead of a photo.

Taipei Zoo

I’ve been to a lot of zoos in my time.  Some, like the zoo + croc farm in Melaka, are a little sad… the animals don’t look too happy.  Others, like the San Diego Zoo, do a much better job with habitats, space, and overall quality of life for the animals.  I’m happy to say the Taipei Zoo meets the same standard as the zoo in San Diego, at least from what I could see as a visitor.

Leopard in the sun

There were a lot of primates there as well, and their habitats were quite impressive.  Mostly I was going for zoom shots, trying to avoid too many hints that it’s a zoo instead of the wild:

Climbing a tree

You’ll notice I have a lot of shots of the big cats.  They had nice habitats, and all were posing for me, so why not?  I used a Nikon D90 and 70-300VR lens for all these photos.

Squinting tiger

Okay, this was Taipei, and it gets hot there in the summer.  I think it was in the mid-30’s Celsius (90’s in F).  I was glad to see the most sensitive animals were not in their “on-show” habitats; probably they were cooler non-visible areas.  But several of the animals were looking toasty, and not too happy about it.  (not the greatest focus, but I had to laugh at/with this poor guy)

Sorry, red panda... I don't control the weather

Here’s a bird I don’t think I had ever seen before in person, only in photos and on cereal cartons:

Colorful toucan

This is a favorite, the lynx: I used one as a character in my book, Demon’s Bane.  The demon Shyama inhabits a lynx form.

This is a lynx, like the one in DEMON'S BANE

I saved my favorite for last.  To get this shot I had to walk around to the back viewing area of the enclosure, and stand on some rocks by the path to get the right angle for a “natural” look.  Out of a dozen shots, one came out looking like a teenager’s portrait in the evening sun:

Friendly-looking lion

To sum up, if you enjoy good zoos, I highly recommend the one in Taipei.  The zoo is at the end of an MRT line so it’s easy to find.  There’s lots more to do in Taipei, so if you’re looking for a nice trip idea, go there!  You won’t regret it.