Wild Imagination Journal

Wild Imagination Journal Has Moved!

2011-10-05T11:22:00.003-08:00

Sorry for the delay posting this, in case anyone is still stumbling into this here, but the blog has moved! Check out the new WI Journal right here: http://www.wildimagephoto.com/journal/

White Mountains 100

2011-04-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

So, I know I fell off the wagon again with posting... sorry. But to tide you over until I get back up on that horse again. Here is a video I put together about my recent experience racing in the White Mountains 100, winter endurance race. The course covers a long, 100-mile loop through the White Mountains Recreation Area north of Fairbanks. (www.whitemountains100.org). If you are interested in such crazy races, this is a great one.

Without further ado:

White Mountains 100 from David Shaw on Vimeo.

The Freedom of Point and Shoots

2011-01-06T10:35:00.000-09:00

Ice fog at noon. ADMA mushing trails, Fairbanks AK.

Canon S95 Point and Shoot. RAW capture, post processing in Lightroom 3

Since my Ironman adventure back in November I've been rather obsessed with riding bicycles. This is something I've always enjoyed, but it has reached, I don't know, obsessive (?) proportions. I now own three main bikes, and have an older 4th bike that doesn't really get ridden. The most recent addition to my stable is a Salsa Mukluk. Now for those of you who don't live in Alaska, and aren't familiar with "Fat Bikes" this beast is something like a monster truck that you pedal. The tires are huge balloon things that are almost 4 inches wide, and can be ridden on extraordinarily soft pressures, which allows the rider to float along on top of snow where a normal set of tires would punch right through. Think of it as snowshoes for your bike.

What does this all have to do with photography? Well, not a great deal, aside from the fact that the new bike will be getting me out more over the remainder of the winter. Which means more images. Now I realize I'm not going to be carrying an SLR and a quiver of lenses, but I will be toting along my S95. Many a photographer will raise their eyebrows at such a silly little camera, but don't scoff. If I weren't carrying it, I wouldn't have a camera at all. And that would be bad.

I'm also finding that the point and shoot is reigniting some of my creativity. It is simple and lacks pretension. That relieves some of the internal pressure to find an image that others will deem a "good" photograph. With a point and shoot, I am free. Free to be creative, to screw around, to just shoot some of the goings-ons in my life. If I get some usable images out of it, great, if not, still great because I had a good time out doing it. Sharing is the purpose of photography. It is about sharing what we care about, what we do, what we see, and our vision of the world. And if I'm not carrying a camera because it is too big and delicate to lug around on my snowy biking adventures, then I'm not a very good photographer am I?

Plus it shoots video!

New Year, New Light

2011-01-02T14:24:00.001-09:00

Canon S95 Point and Shoot

This winter has not been easy for me. I'm used to some escape, and while I did spend nearly two weeks in Mexico in late November, I was so pre-occupied by preparing for, racing and recovering from the Ironman Triathlon, it hardly seemed to be an escape. In fact, this holiday season is the first I've ever spent in Alaska. Strange eh? I've lived here for 12 years and this was the first time I spent Christmas here. Basically, this means that I'm seeing this darkest time of year, in its entirety, for the first time.

Now that we are past the solstice we are gaining back the sun in the range of 3 minutes a day, and that is enough to feel. Each day feels a bit brighter than the one before, the light lingers on the southern horizon for hours after sunset. But when the sun is up, it sheds wonderful, low-angle light across the landscape. Yesterday, New Year's Day 2011, was one such day. It is days like yesterday, when the the world no longer seems so black and white, so gray on gray, but rather an explosion of color.

Canon S95 Point and Shoot

The 2 images here are mostly grab-shots, made with my new Canon S95 point and shoot. Got to say I'm impressed by this little machine. With a little work in Lightroom, the images are nearly perfect. I'm curious to see if my stock agency will accept a couple. I may try that this week.

Hiatus

2010-12-30T10:15:00.000-09:00

Digital compilation of the 20 December 2010 lunar eclipse. Canon 7D, tripod, 70-200 f2.8L IS (IS turned off), 1.4tc, varying shutter speeds, ISO, and f-stop.

Yes, yes, I know, its been months and months since I posted. For some mix of reasons I've been lacking in photographic inspiration. I think I made fewer images over the course of this summer and fall than I have in many years. Not all the reasons are clear, but one in particular is crystalline. Since my return from Antarctica and the Southern Ocean last February, I have been training for an Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a full 26.2 mile marathon). I completed that Ironman in Cozumel, Mexico on 28 November. While the experience has nothing to do with photography (aside from the fact that I recorded video during parts of the race which I am currently editing), it was by far one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Since it's off the subject, I won't go into the details here, though I may post a link at some point to the race report and video.

Now that I've put that behind me, at least for the time being, my cameras have started to whisper to me again. My computer keyboard is more enticing and sparks of creativity (not yet a fire) are starting to flicker around in my head.

Which leads me to this entry. I'm hoping to start posting here again with greater regularity, show off not just my new work but some older images that I'm rediscovering. All of this, to come in the not too distant future. Keep your eye's open.

The image here was made during last week's lunar eclipse. I was fairly unprepared that night, as I'd failed to remember that I no longer possessed a tripod foot for my 500mm. Thus I couldn't use my big glass for the shots. I'm still kicking myself over this, as I'd envisioned crisp, frame-filling shots. Instead I did the best I could with my 70-200 and 1.4TC. It works in the smaller sizes but isn't crisp enough for publication. Lesson learned, and I'm ordering a new tripod foot today.

5 Tips for Better Aurora and Night Photography

2010-04-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

My recent posts of aurora images have drawn a record number of visits to this blog, and several people have queried me with questions in the comments, emails, facebook, or twitter. So I thought I would pass on a few tips to make your own efforts with night photography a bit easier.

1. Get a Tripod. I know this sounds self explanatory, but I'm constantly amazed at how many photographers don't own one, or if they do, don't use it. Tripods are, in my opinion, the one tool in a photographers kit that will greatly improve his or her images. Using a tripod forces you to slow down, think, compose carefully. You can't just point and shoot when using a tripod, you have to move slowly because everything simply takes more time. Of course, you also get sharper images. But I digress- You NEED a tripod for night work because the exposures are so long that it is absolutely impossible to do handheld work. So if you don't have one, get one. A cheapie from your local disount store will work, but I suggest you invest some money in a good set of legs and a good head, it will save you hours of frustration and buyer's remorse.

2. Determining Exposure. It is likely in night work that your camera will get very confused and unable to choose the appropriate f-stop or shutter speed. So you'll need to use the camera's manual setting. (For those who use auto-everything this is a good opportunity to throw away the crutches and learn something about exposure.) Next select an ISO that is appropriate to your camera. If you have a top of the line camera in Nikon or Canon's line with very low noise you'll be able to use a fairly high ISO setting, like 800 or even higher. If however, you shoot with a lower grade DSLR, you'll need to start lower. Try 200 or 400. Next, select a shutter speed. This will depend on your ISO and how fast your lens is. I suggest starting off around 15 seconds, then review your image on the LCD and adjust up or down as necessary. (A word of warning: on a dark night when the only light is your camera LCD your image will appear brighter than it will on your computer, so be careful.)

3. Sharpness. When I first began making images at night, this was my Achilles heel, as I think it is for most people starting out in this genre of photography. Focusing at night is tricky. Even the best cameras won't be able to focus in the dark so set your lens on manual focus and set it like this:

The left edge of the infinity line is the best place to start, small adjustments can then be made by reviewing the LCD after the first few images. You'll likely find if your foreground elements are placed sufficiently back in the frame that everything will be sharp, from the trees and hills to the stars and aurora.

4. Lens Choice. Go wide. Go fast. A good, wide-angle zoom allows you to show as much of the sky and foreground as you wish. The zoom will allow some latitude in your composition. A fast lens like an f2.8 or better will permit shorter shutter speeds which means less trailing in the stars, less wind-motion in the trees and better definition of the curves and pillars of the aurora. Slower lenses will work but higher ISOs (and thus more noise) might be necessary or longer exposures (leading to unwanted trailing in the stars or blurring of the aurora).

5. Composition. Compose as though you were composing a landscape image. Your subject is the sky, but the other elements in the frame are just as important as they would be in daylight. An image of just the aurora and a few stars might have some interesting color but lacks of sense of place or depth. A poorly composed foreground will be a distraction. Select a tree, mountain, person, tent, or whatever and compose carefully. Don't get caught up with just the sky, in the end the other elements of the image are just as important.

Anyone else have thoughts, tips or additional questions on night photography? If so, leave them in the comments.

Spring...kinda

2010-04-08T08:51:00.001-08:00

(Disclaimer: This image has nothing whatsoever to do with the following post)

April in Fairbanks is a tease. We have sparkling blue skies for what seems likes weeks on end. The snows turn to water and slide into the creeks which flow over and through the winter's ice, eating it away. People walk around in shorts and shirt sleeves, willing summer to come, despite the 38 degree temperatures. Road bikes and motorcycles appear on the streets that are now clear of snow and ice. And then...then it snows.

It happens every year. And its happening today. Outside my window as I write this there are scattered flakes falling. Blowing actually, shoved along by an atypical cold wind. It is a sad landscape of gray and brown.

I know it won't last. Geese are arriving at Creamer's Field. I trust that they know better than I that spring is indeed here. Their lives depend on it, I'm just looking forward to summer.

Aurora Borealis

2010-04-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a lousy season for the aurora, but a recent solar storm set the sky alight last night in one of the best displays I've seen in years. Even before the sky was fully dark, there were curtains of green sweeping across the dusky blue. By 11 when I made it down onto the ice of the creek below my cabin there were bright curtains of aurora overhead.

Some displays are almost static with little motion. Others, like last night were constantly shifting, moving fast. That made it basically impossible to capture the shape of the aurora, but the colors were vivid. Green with highlights of red and purple and bright stars in the background.

Nights like that make me very happy I live in Fairbanks.

Antarctica in Motion

2010-04-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

During the Southern Ocean voyage I spent a fair amount of time recording video on my Canon 7D. The image quality of the stills in this camera may be only so-so, but the video capability is absolutely outstanding. For a recent talk on seabird ecology in particular and the trip in general I finally got around to piecing together some video. I've edited down the Antarctica portion of the trip into this short video. Let me know what you think.

Incidentally spring is arriving in force here in Fairbanks. The snow is melting off, sending streams of water across the ice of the creek below my cabin. Winter sports are almost at an end and my shutter finger is getting fired up for the return of the birds.

Antarctica from David Shaw on Vimeo.

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean Presentation

2010-03-07T14:07:00.000-09:00

My friends and colleagues Hugh Rose and Patrick Endres and I will be giving a presentation for the Arctic Audubon Society on our recent Antarctica trip. Each of us will be sharing a selection of images and sharing photo tips and anecdotes from our adventures. If you'll be in Fairbanks on Monday night at 7pm, join us at the Noel Wien Library for an hour of photography and natural history.

Adelies in the fog

2010-03-05T10:24:00.003-09:00

Canon 7D, 17-40f4L @ 40mm, 1/640th @ f4.0, ISO 200

After our sunny morning exploring the peaks, and crags of Devil Island we motored off in the Polar Star to our first landing on Antarctica proper at the far northern tip of the peninsula, Brown Bluff.

The name Brown Bluff doesn't really do the place justice. The "bluff" is actually a 1000 foot cliff that shoots up a short distance from the beach. Snow and Pintado Petrels nest in the rock crevices and are constantly coming and going. Several thousand pairs of Adelie Penguins nest in a colony that reaches up the talus slope below the cliffs. Gentoo Penguins and Kelp Gulls occupy the boulders that are scattered up and down the gravel beach.

Since my first visit to the place in 2003, Brown Bluff has been among my favorites. Perhaps because it was the first place I encountered Adelies, or maybe because it was the first time I set foot on the great southern continent. Or maybe its just a remarkable place.

We arrived in cloudy, windless conditions, but as the afternoon went on, a fog bank rolled in from the north. First, as I zodiac cruised with a group of clients around the icebergs it began swallowing up the distant bergs, then the closer ones.

Back on shore, a short time later, I was photographing the penguins coming and going from the colony. They were splashing in and out of the water. The cold, foggy light made for challenging, but interesting, photography. It was a perfect chance for wide-angle work as the penguins popped from the water just feet away. The image above I snapped from a prone position on the beach. It's dark, but so was the day. This image reminds me of what the day felt like. The cold rock under me, the fog bank rolling in, graying the skies in the background, the icebergs floating like ghosts in water as gray as the sky.

Canon 7D, 17-40 f4L @40mm, 1/250th, f8.0, ISO 200, handheld from Zodiac

This second image was made during the short zodiac cruise around the bergs. The fog bank in the background made the blues in this berg pop like fireworks.

This is why I love the Antarctic. Every time the weather changes (which it does, almost constantly), the colors change, they brighten and soften, landscape elements appear and disappear. Even the wildlife seems to change. Penguins go from cute and clutzy birds to emblems of survival at the edge of what's possible.

Atop the Devil

2010-03-01T13:35:00.002-09:00

Canon 7D, 17-40f4L @ 17mm, 1/3200th, @f9.0, ISO 200, handheld

Finally, we found the sun. It took two days of bashing through broken sea ice and trying to make up time in areas of open water, but we finally made it to the Antarctic Peninsula. Our first landing was on Paulet Island, a speck of rock north and east of the mainland and tucked up against the glaciated dome of Dundee Island. Paulet is a remarkable place where 100,000 or so Adelie Penguin pairs make their nests. There are penguins atop the icebergs that surround the island, they climb up and down the snowy slopes like ants, and fill the edges of the sea ice. It was sunny, warm, and a near-perfect day. And I got just about nothin' photographically.

Well that isn't entirely true, there are a few keepers in there, but nothing that really excited me. But I was in Antarctica and that alone made up for the fruitless hours with my camera.

That's why, for the time being at least, I'm skipping over Paulet Island and moving straight on to day 2 on the Antarctic Peninsula where we first visited Devil Island. This little visited island in the Weddell Sea is home to a few thousand Adelies, Skuas, Sheathbills and the other mishmash of Antarctic wildlife, but it is the scenery that makes the place.

Devil Island is tucked into a steep-sided cove of the heavily glaciated Vega Island and its summit rises some 1000 feet above the surrounding water. It is a remarkable place that made me wish for a sea kayak to explore the glassy waters. Instead I climbed.

With a handful of others I scrambled up the scree slopes to the taller of the island's two summits. From the summit ridge sprouts the pinnacle of the rotten stone in the picture above. Ted Cheeseman, the expedition leader and Ross Hofmeyr the ship's doctor went for a scramble to the top and I snapped a few images as they stood atop it.

Had I known that that glaring sun would be almost the last we'd see during our time on the continent, I'd have spent more time appreciating it.

Ice Becomes Us

2010-02-24T18:12:00.004-09:00

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8L IS @200mm, 1/800th sec @ f8.0, handheld from ship's deck

Now we bid a fond farewell to South Georgia and head south into the colder and icier waters surrounding Antarctica.

Before we arrived at the great southern continent we first made a short detour into the very isolated South Orkney Islands. The Orkneys are a small, mountainous and heavy glaciated archipeligo that pop out of the southern ocean about halfway between South Georgia and Antarctica proper.

The weather absolutely sucked.

Though there was some dramatic light when we first arrived at the islands early in the morning, I was fast asleep and missed it. Patrick Endres, of course, didn't miss it and got a couple of incredible images. (Click HERE to check them out). By the time we pulled into Coronation Island's Shingle Cove the wind was howling.

And it just got worse.

Cheesemans' Safaris makes more effort to get people on shore, than any company I've ever encountered. And despite heavily gusting winds, we went to shore. It was cold and rainy and windy and nasty.

Oh, and there were penguins too. Our first Adelies of the trip.

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8L IS w/ 1.4TC, 1/500th, f4, ISO 200

I hardly made any photos while on shore that morning, I was much too distracted by the weather, riding ballast in otherwise empty zodiacs (to keep them from flipping in the 70mph gusts), and tending to very cold clients. Some people however were clicking away happily, I just wasn't one of them.

When we finally all made it back to the ship, safe and sound. We headed away from the island running with the wind into newly sunny skies. And there we encountered icebergs, lots of them. That day I made some of my favorite images of icebergs. The gray storm skies in the background and sunlit bergs made for incredible light.

The ice just made everything feel like...well it just felt like Antarctica.

Probably because that is where we were headed.

Photography advice from National Public Radio

2010-02-23T09:05:00.003-09:00

Ira Glass from "This American Life" fame has this to say about story-telling. If you apply it to photography it is just as true. Enjoy.

Fur Seals: Striking Fear in the Hearts of Men

2010-02-19T08:40:00.004-09:00

Canon 7D, 500mmf4L IS, 1/200th @f4.5, ISO 200

Look on ye short of bravery! Look deep into those dark, fierce eyes! Do they not strike fear into your heart? Do they not fill you with terror?

No?

Well they should. Because this little guy, cute as he may be, a few years from now will be leaping out of the tussocks, snarling like a pit-bull as you pass. This is one of the drawbacks of visiting South Georgia Island. Fur Seals are absolutely everywhere. They cover the beaches and fill the tussock slopes until the alpine zone 400 feet above the beach.

And they don't like you. Not one little bit.

Fur Seals, particularly the females can be very aggressive, very aggressive. My description of them leaping out of the tussocks is not at all an exaggeration. It is not uncommon for tourists to be bitten. One guide on our trip, Jim Danzenbaker had the knee of his waders patched up from a previous run-in with a grumpy seal. Luckily this year there were no contacts, aside from one saucy juvenile like the one above who decided to take a nip at the toe of my boot (only my pride was damaged).

There are a few techniques for dealing with these monsters. The most effective is to always carry a walking stick or tripod which can be used to fend off the charging seals. It isn't used as a club, more of a pointer. Point your tripod at the nose of the seal and it will, 99.9% of the time, stop in its tracks. Most charges are bluff, but in the event that it isn't, it's a good idea to have something between you and the seal.

From a photographic perspective, it isn't hard to get close. Too close is usually much more of a problem. The pups will come right up when they aren't napping. Their curiosity is endearing, as are their grayish, alien eyes. The adults will come right up too, but their teeth are usually bared and your tripod is too occupied shooing them away to hold a camera. But getting portraits from a few yards back is simple.

Canon 7D, 70-200 f2.8L, 1/160th @ f2.8, ISO 200

This one is an adult male. Not one of the really big ones, but a sizable fellow nonetheless. The males, gratefully, are usually confident in their status and don't feel the need to attack every human that walks by. I'm grateful for this because the few big ones I've been charged by have been much harder to dissuade with a pointy stick.

I like the big guys though. They look so arrogant with their noses in the air, eyes half-closed in disdain at the rest of the world.

Though I do think they'd look much better with a big red circus ball balanced on their nose. Maybe I'll bring one on my next trip.

South Georgia Predators: Giant Petrels

2010-02-17T14:35:00.004-09:00

Canon 7D, 500mm f4L IS, 1/250th @f5.6, ISO 100

There are two species of Giant Petrels patrolling the Southern Ocean, known simply as Northern and Southern Giant Petrels. It would be great of course if their names actually meant there was some delineating line between the two, unfortunately, there isn't. They are of the same size and general shape, and their plumages are similar and they are often found in the same places. Separating the two, particularly at sea, is not always an easy task. Northerns have an orange tip to the bill and the eye is usually pale. While the Southern has a greenish tip to the bill and a generally dark eye.

So there you go, got that?

So what's the bird in the image? The bill is out of sight, tucked into the back feathers of the bird. But the eye, conveniently is open. The color? Gray. Thus, Northern Giant Petrel.

There is your birding tip of the day. Enjoy.

Now these things are the size of albatross. 6 feet from wing tip to wing tip and can be absolutely wicked predators. Primarily the Giant Petrels are scavengers, feasting on whatever nature provides, but occasionally they will cooperatively gang up on and kill things as large as elephant seal pups. It is unpleasant at best to watch 15 of these hulking birds reaching into the guts of a dead seal, blood smattered across their pale feathers and gore dripping from their beaks. In action, it is hard to believe that these birds are the same ones that nap so contentedly on the beach. Their long sharp bills tucked daintily into the soft feathers of their back.

If however, you are an injured or dying seal, many pairs of those lovely gray eyes will be the last thing you ever see.

Predators of South Georgia

2010-02-15T09:40:00.003-09:00

Canon 7d, 17-40 f4L @17mm, f4, 1/2500th, ISO 200

It's a remote and isolated oceanic island, far, far from the mainland of South America and even farther from Africa. South Georgia Island has no native land mammals (though rats, mice, and reindeer have been introduced). No foxes, no wolves, no badgers, coyotes, squirrels, or weasels. It would seem that the local nesting birds, the penguins and petrels, would have it easy.

They don't.

While at sea, where the birds of South Georgia spend the majority of their time, they are hunted mercilessly by Leopard Seals and Orcas. On shore, they escape the threat of their aquatic predators, but not threat of the Skuas, Gulls, and Giant Petrels that are constantly looking for an opportunity to steal an unguarded egg or small chick.

The Skuas in particular are almost universally despised by visitors to the Southern Ocean. I say almost universally, because I happen to quite like them. Like any predator, they can brutal. On the South Orkneys we watched for several minutes as a pair of Skuas pulled an Adelie Penguin Chick away from its parents and off a short cliff. The downy chick tumbled down the rocks to land at the bottom where it was set upon by the Skuas. Over the course of a few minutes, as the chick tried to escape, struggle and fight back, the Skuas killed and began to eat it. It was, in no uncertain terms, brutal.

Yet the Skuas have chicks to feed as well. They are doing what is necessary to survive, however unpleasant that may be to our eyes.

It is not their brutality that I like, but their fearlessness. Skuas have no predators on land and no reason to fear people. Like the Caracaras of the Falklands they are more than willing to approach a person. Particularly if they have reason to suspect a meal might be in the making. This Skua came up to me as I lay prone on the grass shooting the wide-angle Gentoo image from the previous post. My low angle allowed me to get this rather distinctive and humorous portrait of the bird. From a standing position the shot would not have been so compelling.

Here is a photo tip for the Southern Ocean: get low, lay still, and wait for curious predators (they are sure to arrive).

Gentoos Above Fortuna Bay

2010-02-12T10:02:00.003-09:00

Canon 7d, 17-40 f4L @17mm, 1/3200th sec, f4, ISO 200, handheld while lying down

South Georgia Island is a fjordland. All around the island are deep bays that reach into the mountainous interior of the island. Tidewater glaciers spill down to the sea from above turning the water a rich turquoise with the silt. The island is surprisingly green, particularly when compared to the shades of gray landscape of the Antarctic continent. The steep shores of the bays are covered in grass and tussocks. On a cloudy day when the glaciers and huge mountains are obscured you could almost imagine you were in Scotland or maybe the Aleutians.

Fortuna Bay lies on the north side of the island and holds the distinction of being the place where Ernest Shackleton reached the north side of South Georgia after crossing from King Haakon Bay on the south. He knew he was saved when he reached the top of the Fortuna Glacier and heard the sound of the horn from the whaling station at Stromness Bay a few miles to the east.

Fortuna carries that history, but unlike Stromness, Grytviken and other places in South Georgia, no rotting whaling station lies in Fortuna and the hand of man feels a bit more removed here than elsewhere on the island.

This was another early morning landing and I was on shore before 6am. It started off cloudy with wet snow falling intermittently. The ever-present fur seals cried from the beaches and hordes of King Penguins came and went along the shore. I climbed up the grassy slope to photograph a nesting Light-mantled Albatross. Then as tiny patches of sun came and went across the bay, I walked down to photograph a small colony of Gentoo Penguins high above the water, where I made this image.

It was quite a morning.

The Kings of South Georgia- Part III

2010-02-11T12:09:00.005-09:00

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8 @200mm, 1/640th, f2.8, ISO 100, -1/3EV, tripod mounted

I think this will be the last of my posts featuring King Penguins. I'm ready to move on with my life.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that there was a wall of birds and seals up the beach from where I was standing. I really wasn't joking. Granted the wall was no higher than three feet, but so dense and wide it seemed insurmountable. Instead we cut inland, around the wall and walked toward the colony from that direction. From the landing site, a mile distant, the colony looks like a gray patch of ground that extends from the flats near the beach up a hill to the south. As I hiked closer, some definition arose, and the gray mass began to separate into patches of gray and brown, then, before long into the dense mass of birds themselves.

The brown birds are juveniles, called "Oaken Boys". Kings have an odd breeding schedule, that I won't take the time to describe. But what it amounts to is during the summer the colony consists of adult birds sitting on eggs and older chicks whose parents are foraging out at sea. The Oaken Boys form groups called creches that mingle about throughout the colony.

Once at the colony, there was so much noise, so many trumpets from the adults and whistles from the juveniles it was difficult to speak. There steady movement of birds coming and going, shifting, and turning made the colors feel kaleidoscopic. Photographically, I wanted to portray the density of the place and my images of the birds close to my viewing location just weren't working out. So I turned my attention to where the colony extends up the hillside. There, due to the rise of the hill, I was able to get a perspective that worked for me. I shot a few with the long lens, but I didn't feel I was telling enough of the story so I switched to the 70-200 and made the top image here.

Canon 7D, 500mm f4L, 1/250th, f5.6, ISO 100, -1/3EV

This second image is a portrait of Oaken Boy. They are about the texture and shape of an over-sized Kiwi Fruit. They are also fearless and twice during that morning at Salisbury Plain I felt tugging on my backpack straps and turned to find an Oaken Boy fiddling with my gear. They are about three feet tall, and for all the world look like kids in Halloween costumes. It is nearly impossible not to be smiling when you are surrounded by all of this.

Canon 7D, 17-40 f4L, 1/1000th @f5.0, ISO 100, handheld

With this last image I leave the King Penguins of South Georgia Island and move on to other things. They may reappear again somewhere, but for now, I'm ready to start writing about some other aspect of the Southern Ocean.

Onward!

The Kings of South Georgia- continued

2010-02-10T13:37:00.003-09:00

Canon 7D, 17-40f4L @17mm, 1/200th, f5.6, ISO 100, handheld

So before the rotten weather from the last post hit we had a few wonderful hours at the Salisbury Plain King Penguin colony. Honestly, I didn't spend a heck of a lot of time at the colony itself. The birds coming and going from the beach were so interesting and photogenic that I hardly got myself more than a few hundred meters from the landing location for most of the morning.

Cheesemans' Safaris works hard to get people on shore for as long as possible. And this morning, like several during the trip, there was the option for an early landing. Clients could skip breakfast in exchange for more time on shore. As staff, we weren't really given that choice, which was fine since I would have been there anyway. The early risers on this particular morning were well rewarded. Some of the best light we had on the island, we found during those early hours. After breakfast, when the lie-a-beds were making it to shore, the clouds rolled in, it started to snow, the wind picked up and within a couple of hours it looked like that video in the last post. Things change fast in the southern ocean and you can never assume you'll have a second chance.

The top image is one of several favorites from the trip. I was walking my way slowly up the beach, making photos as they presented themselves when this group of Kings erupted from the water and waddled up the beach toward me. It was almost a grab-shot, but it worked.

Canon 7d, 17-40 f4L @17mm, 1/250th, f5.6, ISO 100, handheld

This next image was made around the same time as the first. So many Kings were moving up and down the beach that I just parked myself on the sand and waited for groups to walk by. I never waited long, there was a steady stream of birds coming and going, coming and going. When I looked down the beach toward the colony it was just a wall of birds and seals.

Eventually I'll get around to posting some video clips, or if I'm really ambitious an edited compilation of the trip. Better than a photo, video shows the density and constant motion of the wildlife. But you'll just have to wait for that.

Bad Weather on South Georgia

2010-02-10T11:11:00.004-09:00

Mark Rentz, one of the clients on the Antarctica trip took a video of some bad conditions on South Georgia Island, posted on YouTube by my friend Patrick Endres. This was made later the same morning as the images from the last post. Pretty crazy. Oh, that's me, by the way, in the red handling the zodiac on the right side of the boat.

The Kings of South Georgia

2010-02-09T19:51:00.006-09:00

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8L, @70mm, 1/800th, f5.0, ISO 100

South Georgia is just one of those places. It is special in the way the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is special. The way the Serengeti, Okavango Delta, Amazon, and Yellowstone National Park are special. It is a true wildlife spectacle, set upon a remote, mountainous, and glaciated island. To quote Shakespeare:

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this South Georgia Island.

Granted my change there at the end does mess up the iambic pentameter but the quote is, I think, more accurate for South Georgia than it is for Jolly Old England. Plus, South Georgia is home to a few million King Penguins and that makes the place just about perfect.

Except for the weather. The weather can really, really suck. Which it did for most of our time on the island.

We were graced with a few nice hours at Salisbury Plain, the only large King Penguin Colony we were able to visit due to the rotten weather. There I managed several decent images of the kings. The one above is a bit out of my usual style, but I like this environmental portrait. The fur seals, Giant Petrels and mountains in the background provide a sense of place.

Canon 7D, 500mm f4L, Tripod, 1/800th, f4.0, ISO 400

This second is not unique, but I like it. The patterns in the neck of a napping King are exquisite, and worth capturing, even if I wasn't the first to do it.

I'll be posting a few more over the next couple of days so keep your eyes open.

The Quest Begins

2010-02-08T17:56:00.004-09:00

Saturday was the start of the Yukon Quest dogsled race in downtown Fairbanks. For those of us who care about such things it is kind of like the superbowl of the local mushing scene. The Quest is a much more difficult race than more famous Iditarod. The lengths are about the same but the Quest has less support, less checkpoints, less of about everything except wilderness.

The start (and thus finish) alternate each year between Fairbanks and Whitehorse Canada. This year the start was in Fairbanks and the mushers will cross the finish line in Whitehorse after crossing 1000 miles of snowy and cold wilderness.

The start is also great fun to photograph. Some years I get a press pass for the backstage view, which is usually a much better option, but this year, I forgot about it until it was too late so was relegated to watching from the crowd side of thing. This allowed me to get a few different perspectives on the race. I got a few, like the one above, that is typical of mushing races. Though a fine shot it doesn't really tell much about the scene.

This second image was taken from the pedestrian bridge over the frozen Chena River. This perspective allows a different angle on the scene. It shows some of the crowd and, importantly, the sign indicating the start line. This one makes for an acceptable stock image, but again, isn't terribly unique.

This last image is my favorite from the morning and was completely serendipitous. I was trying to inch in and get some shots similar to the first one, when this woman in a bright red parka stepped right in front of me and raised her point and shoot to snap an image. I made lemonade from the situation, turned my focus on her camera and snapped this image.

Any thoughts?

Striated Caracara: Steeple Jason Island, Falklands

2010-02-05T14:34:00.008-09:00

Canon 7D, 17-40f4L @ 40mm, 1/400th sec/ f10, ISO 200, handheld while laying on the ground

Steeple Jason Island, as well as being home to the largest colony of seabirds in the western hemisphere, is also home to numerous pairs of Striated Caracaras. These birds are exceedingly bold. Living on islands as they do, without any predators, they are accustomed to being the top of the food chain. They are quite unwilling to allow something as inconsequential as humans to change that. Striated Caracaras are scavengers for the most part, but also prey upon penguin and other seabird chicks when the opportunity arises. It is their scavenger nature that makes them most interesting from a photographic perspective. Let me tell you the story:

This bird, and two others, were scratching around in the dirt and heather, taking occasional dust-baths when I and a group of clients walked up. Now tourism etiquette in the southern ocean requires that we don't approach an animal closer than 15 feet. Of course the animals themselves are under no such restrictions and are perfectly allowed to approach you. When I saw these birds, I laid down on the ground to snap a few low-angle portraits with my 500mm. I didn't get to snap a shot, because as soon as I laid down this bird looked at me and bounded straight over. There I was, on my stomach, with a large, endangered, and highly photogenic raptor about a foot away, with a 500mm lens on my camera. It couldn't have been more worthless for the situation. So I decided to just enjoy the moment and watch. The Caracara hopped about, I slowly sat up, it came over and eyed my foot, wondering surely if I was yet dead enough to eat. Eventually, I could take it no longer and slowly removed my camera backpack, unzipped it and pulled out the 17-40. Every movement I made the bird became less sure I was about to die. I was certain that before I managed to get the lens on the camera that the caracara would decide I was too alive to consume and fly off, it's head down in disappointment.

Gratefully, my slow and occasionally jerky movements perhaps resembled death throes and I was able to get the lens on while not losing the bird's interest. I snapped a few from a sitting position before lowering myself again to the ground for this low angle, wide perspective of the Caracara on the rock with the mountains of Steeple Jason in the background.

I managed to snap off a few shots before the poor bird realized that this clicking, breathing, and occasionally brightly-flashing human was not, in fact, food. Finally it did arrive at the truth and flew off to look for something a bit closer to death.

Sorry to disappoint.

Shameless Self Promotion

2010-02-05T09:39:00.003-09:00

I'm a bit behind schedule on this one, but my recent article in Birder's World is on newsstands now. It is entitled "Birding Alaska's Arctic" and is illustrated about 1/2 and 1/2 with my images and those from Sharon Cummings. Essentially it relates the story of a photography and birding trip I led through Arctic Wild to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I think it is one of my better pieces and, even better, the opening double page spread is my image, always nice to see. Check it out.

The Southern Ocean: Steeple Jason Island, Falklands

2010-02-04T14:01:00.006-09:00

Canon 7D, 500mm f4L, handheld from the deck of the ship, 1/1250 sec, f8, ISO 200

OK, Alright, I know, I know. It's been awhile since I posted. But I've got an excuse that pardons me at least for most of January. I've been away from the computer for a bit, on a ship, cruising around the Southern Ocean. But, now that I'm back, my hiatus ends here, with this image of Steeple Jason Island, in the Falklands.

(Quick background for new readers or those who don't remember back a few posts when I alluded to this trip: For about month from late Dec to late Jan, I was working as a naturalist/photo guide on a Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris trip to the Southern Ocean. I was one of 14 expedition staff.)

I think I've been putting off posting, despite being back for a week, because I hardly know where to begin. My head is still spinning from the trip, though now more like a wobbling top, than the centrifuge it was a few day ago. My thoughts, and my images from the trip are starting to come together, and I'm ready to start posting...I think.

I wanted to present a written narrative to the trip, but really there was just too much. Images, for the most part, will have to play that roll. (Eventually, the log I wrote for Cheesemans' will be posted on their website and I'll link to it in a future post.)

For the next few entries I'll be featuring shots from the Falkland Islands. We spent three remarkable days exploring the archipelago. It is a wonderful place, full of rugged islands, remote beaches, and seabird colonies. Steeple Jason Island, where this image was made is by far my favorite of our stops, and perhaps one of my favorite places of the trip. 115,000 pairs of Black-browed Albatross nest on the island making it the largest seabird colony in the western hemisphere. It is a landscape of birds.

The image here was made from the deck of the Polar Star, our ship. The sun was just up, the sea haze was defining the ribs of rock on the shoreline, and Black-browed Albatross by the hundreds or thousands were patrolling the sky and water surrounding the island. For a few minutes it was magical. Then the sun rose a bit more, burnt off the sea haze, and the moment was over.

Luckily, the day was just beginning. More on that in the next post.

Gadgetry

2009-12-02T15:36:00.003-09:00

iPhone image, post processed in Best Camera iphone application

OK I admit it, I'm a total sucker for gadgetry. And in that vein, I just got an iphone. I'd admired the little do-it-all wonder for some time, but the price had kept me from jumping on the band wagon. Recently, however, my other plan expired and I decided it was worth the extra bit for the shear niftiness of the iphone. Among that niftiness is the iphone's camera. At a mere 2 megapixels in the version I have, it is unlikely to ever produce to a truly publishable image, but that is not its purpose. Rather, I look at it as I would a Holga. A tool for creativity rather than reproduction. And it is great for that, always with me it allows me to snap some shots I would not have otherwise bothered with. Add to it, the neat application: Best Photo, developed by Chase Jarvis and you have hours and hours of entertainment. The image above is post-processed in Best Photo, which has some neat effects for a very simple program.

Anything to keep my creativity going, right? Or is it anything for a new spiffy gadget?

Not My Image: Patrick Endres

2009-11-23T09:16:00.004-09:00

Patrick Endres is one of my favorite photographers of the Alaskan landscape. Add to that, he is a prolific Fairbanks local whose images, rich in color and depth, pop up all over the place. Though a generalist nature photographer, shooting everything from wildlife to people to landscapes, it is my opinion that Patrick does his best work when shooting dramatic mountain scenery. The image above is one of my favorites of his. He made it while shooting quickly in Prince William Sound. (Read his blog entry detailing the shot HERE).

I like the image because of the limited color. It primarily consists of tones of gray and blue. The image has excellent depth and most importantly tells a great story of the stark post-glacial landscape. It seems this shot could have been made in almost any year of earth's history, and I like that.

Additionally Patrick has a great blog where he discusses everything about Alaska photography, if you want to learn something from one of the best of Alaska's photographers, I encourage you to check it out HERE.

I'm looking forward to gleaning what I can from his this winter as we both work as guides on a Cheeseman's Ecology Safaris trip to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. I'll be headed that direction shortly after Christmas.

Skiing Shoot

2009-11-16T15:24:00.005-09:00

Canon EOS 7D, 500mm f4L, f4.0, 1/500th second, ISO 400, Exposure compensation: +0.17, tripod mounted.

An acquaintance of mine, an Olympic hopeful in cross-country skiing asked me to take some photos of him this weekend. He was looking for some decent looking action shots to send to his sponsors and get printed into posters to hand out at races. As it turns out, there is a lot more to going for the Olympics than just training and being fast on skis. There is a lot networking, and creating buzz.

So I met Tyson Flaharty and his wive Davya on Saturday afternoon. It was overcast which made for less than dramatic lighting, but at least the exposure was easy to judge without the sunlight creating too much contrast. There are a few hurdles to this kind of work. First it was reasonably cold, with the mercury sitting right around zero. That means that my batteries would not hold their charge nearly as long as on a warm day. To compensate for that I often pulled the battery out of the camera and put it in my pocket when we were moving from spot to spot, or as I was waiting for Tyson to get ready for another shoot.

The second issue with the cold is that, once outside, I couldn't take my equipment back indoors until the end of the shoot. Why? you ask. Simple: condensation. Just like a cold glass of beer sweating in a hot room, had I taken my cold camera and lenses indoors they would have fogged up and frosted over like an ice cube. (Tip: You can put your equipment in a plastic ziplock bags to keep this from happening, if you ever need to go in and out a lot during a cold shoot).

The last hurdle was the shoot itself. As I already mentioned the lighting was flat, but easy to expose for. I pushed the exposure about a stop to bring the snow to near white, but retaining texture and keeping texture in Tyson's black clothes. I nailed almost every exposure, it was easy. I shot primarily two lenses, my 70-200 f2.8L, and my 500mm f4L. We were shooting on forested ski trails so making Tyson pop out from the background required a very shallow depth of field. I shot wide open at ISO 400. I think I had better success with the 500 because of its extremely narrow depth of field. the background in the image above blurs nicely. It retains enough information to see that it is forest, but not enough to distract from Tyson.

Skiing, as any fast-paced sport is tough to shoot. Focus distances are constantly shifting and getting sharp images requires a fast autofocus and/or perfect timing. The 7D did well in this regard, it kept up with Tyson as he accelerated toward me and most shots are sharp. The image quality at ISO 400 suffered somewhat, a bit noisy which reduced some sharpness, but the results are acceptable.

As winter is here with a vengeance (it is now -22F as I write this) there will likely be more of this kind of thing to come. Mushing and ski season are underway!

Not My Image: NASA- (the merging of science and art)

2009-11-11T09:27:00.003-09:00

Image by NASA of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy compiling photos from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes and the Chandra Observatory

I found this image today on one of my favorite non-photography blogs: "Bad Astronomy" written by Dr. Phil Plait. I'm not really much of an astronomy buff, (though I do like to stare at the night sky for long periods of time), but Dr. Plait's blog is an excellent and highly readable mix of skepticism, science and trivia.

I selected this image for today's Not My Image feature because, I mean, really, like....wow. Soooo cool. This is a photo composite of the center of our milky way taken by three very different telescopes: the Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra. I won't go through the details, if you are curious about them you can read all about it on Bad Astronomy right HERE.

I will tell you what I like about it. Most importantly is what I mentioned in the title: It is a true merging of art and science. This image will be as interesting to a single-minded scientist with hardly a neuron firing on the right side of his brain as it will be to an artist, writer or photographer. The photo is full of mystery and questions, history and future, violence and incredible beauty, and... {stutters to a stop}.

I mean, really, like...wow...

Another Moose Image

2009-11-10T12:22:00.005-09:00

Canon 7D, 70-200 f2.8L IS @ 200mm, 1/100th sec, f2.8, ISO 800, +.25 Exposure Compensation

I mean really, can you actually have too many images of a moose?

This is another from the series made a while back. It is a bit different perspective, though I was still trying to tell the same story as the image I previously posted. In short: Moose live in dense brush and are surprisingly hidden for huge animals. I also like the clearly winter aspect of the scene. One thing I prefer about this image is that the animal is not facing me directly. In wildlife photography, a little eye contact can create some visual tension which is good, but what it means is that the animal was aware of you, and more importantly, paying attention to you. That, is not good. In the previous image, I was a obtrusive and influencing the animal's natural behavior which is generally to be avoided. This image shows the moose paying me no mind, merely looking around its habitat (at the other moose that was there actually). In this shot, there is no evidence aside from the image itself that I was even there. Wildlife photographers should be that way, invisible except for our vision of the scene.

Katmai Bear Fight

2009-11-06T10:50:00.002-09:00

Canon 40D, 500mm f4L IS, 1/1000th @ f4.5, ISO 100, -2/3 exposure compensation.

I've been meaning to post this image for some time, but just haven't gotten around to it. This is one of my favorite shots from this past summer. I made it during a National Geographic Expeditions trip I was leading in July. The highlight of the trip (at least for me) is a short day trip out to Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park. Brooks is THE place to watch bears, which also, and unfortunately, makes it a very popular place. There are lots of tourists and people management instead of wildlife management seems to be the main chore of the park rangers. Nonetheless, it is a great place for photography. If your timing is right, the bears are plentiful, close, and very easy to photograph. I've seen point-and-shooters emerge from Brooks Falls with enviable images. Visit if you get the chance, it won't be a solitary experience, but you'll enjoy it.

I made this image from the lower platform at the falls. This is the spill-over platform and is usually much less crowded. I actually prefer it to the upper platform for photography because the perspective is lower and behavior is easier observe. These two sub-adult bears were bickering over a fishing spot and my location provided a great angle on the action. None of the photogs lining the railing on the upper platform could get this kind of shot.

I'd like to say this took some huge amount of skill to attain, but really it didn't. It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time and knowing my camera well enough to focus and compose quickly. In fact, let that be today's lesson:

Know Your Camera: To work fast in changing light or action, you must know the controls of your camera backwards and forwards and in the dark (literally). You should be able to operate all you camera's settings without removing your eye from the view-finder. Can you change the ISO, the f-stop and shutter speed without looking at your fingers? If not, spend some time with your camera learning where everything is located. It will speed you up when you need it, because in wildlife, portrait, and even to a certain extent, landscape photography, things move quickly. You must too.

Not My Image: Alex Badyaev

2009-11-04T08:56:00.003-09:00

Today, I launch a new feature here on the Wild Imagination Journal. I'm going to call it simply: Not My Image. That way there will be no mistaking these for mine, not that I think you'll be confused. The purpose of these occasional posts will be to share work of some of the photographers whom I admire and take inspiration.

I can think of no photographer I'd rather honor with this first post than Alex Badyaev. He is, in my opinion, one of the finest wildlife photographers...period. His work is absolutely beautiful, simultaneously showing behavior and place, combined with exquisite composition. He is an evolutionary biologist by trade, a professor of biology at the University of Arizona. And that makes his work even more outstanding: Photography isn't even his job! His expertise and knowledge about wildlife allow him a perspective rarely found in images of animals. Alex's technical expertise is also out of this world, incredible light, depth of field, composition, and focus. Take a few minutes, or longer, to browse his mind-blowing galleries and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Find his site here: Ten Best Photos.

Return of the Night

2009-11-03T19:24:00.004-09:00

Canon 7d, Sigma 30mm f1.4, 56 seconds, f1.4, (Bulb setting) ISO 400

I captured this image a few weeks ago on my very first night with Canon 7D. Night imagery is tricky in the digital world because the longer the shutter speed the more noise is generated. This image at 56 seconds is pushing it, but with acceptable results. The haze is from approaching clouds which were catching the lights of Fairbanks a few miles to the south of where I made the image on my property.

Winter is a difficult time of year for photography in Alaska. Conditions can be brutally cold, which is hard on equipment, hands and the rest of us. But the rewards can be great. Even close to Fairbanks we have superb sky watching, some of the best in fact. The aurora can rise in green curtains without warning and disappear just as quickly. I have relatively few images of the aurora, and once again, on the night I made this image it was absent yet again. I'll continue to keep my eyes on the sky this winter, and hopefully I come up with some images to share.

Oh, it's clear, full moon and -5 out as I write this. Welcome winter!

November Desktop

2009-10-30T15:51:00.002-08:00

November Desktop calendar for your enjoyment. Click the image above to take you to a Flickr page. Select "all sizes" then download the size you want and set as your desktop.

Wilderness Photography

2009-10-30T13:34:00.005-08:00

Canon 20D, 500mm f4L w/ 1.4tc, 1/800th sec @ f10, ISO 200

I made the image above on a photography trip I was leading for the excellent wilderness outfitter Arctic Wild in 2007. It was a custom trip, which basically means that the two clients wanted to have a trip designed to their needs. I was fortunate enough to be their guide. In mid-June I met my two clients in the remote village of Kaktovik on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. From there we flew out to a wilderness airstrip on the Canning River for a few days of shooting, then moved north to the mouth of the Canning for the final days of the trip. Bird photography was the goal of the trip, and I did my best to put the two clients in the best situations I could muster. I think I was fairly successful. But shooting in these areas is not easy. There are a lot of considerations from memory cards to charging batteries, to packing light for small-plane travel. I regularly get questions about what I carry on a wilderness photography trip, and here is my answer:

I take what I need. There now we can all go home.

Of course it isn't that straightforward. Needs and wants are often confounded so its important to understand priorities. First and foremost, I carry what I need to stay warm, dry, and well-fed. It is impossible to take good photographs, if my hands are too cold to hold the camera because I decided to leave behind my mittens in exchange for an extra lens. I won't go into the details of my personal packing list, because it varies so much from trip to trip. From there I can start thinking about camera gear.

On most flights into the bush, passengers are limited to 50-60lbs of personal gear. On backpacking trips that amount will also include your share of the food and group equipment. So packing light is key. I can generally get all my non-photographic equipment including tent, clothing, sleeping bag, pad and such down to 25-30lbs. That leaves 25-35 lbs remaining for camera gear. Here is my photo equipment list for a non-backpacking, photography specific trip:

2 camera bodies (a backup is vital)
500mm f4
1.4x TC
17-40 f4
70-200 f2.8
30mm f1.4 (this one is optional, and can be left behind if things are tight)
Carbon fiber tripod
Memory card wallet with about 25 gigs of memory
Camera backpack
2-3 extra batteries
Solar panel and battery charger
2 stand-alone battery powered hard drive/card readers
Small bag of filters, remote triggers and other accessories

Total camera gear weight: about 30lbs.

Backing up images is vital. A good friend and fellow Alaska photographer, Hugh Rose, recently lost his compact flash card wallet overboard in Prince William Sound. I'm not sure he had his images backed up or not, but the lesson is clear: cards are replaceable, but your images aren't, so backup. Several companies make external, stand-alone, battery-powered hard drives that can be used to back up your images no matter where you are. Jobo, Sanho, Nexto, and Epson are four. I carry two in separate waterproof cases so everything is in duplicate.

Battery charging- With some luck, your time in the backcountry will include a few sunny days and the sun is an excellent source of electricity if you've got the right tools. Brunton manufactures several varieties of compact and foldable solar panels. With the right attachments and chargers, you have all you need to keep shooting. I won't go into the technical details here, but check out their website for some ideas. You can purchase chargers made to work with a variety of camera batteries (using adjustable contact points on the charger) which are compatible with solar panels. A visit to your local battery supply store will get you going in the right direction.

So the summary is this: extended photo trips to the world's wild places can be full of hurdles. But none of them are insurmountable. If you have more questions about this, or anything else, leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.

Winter Afternoon

2009-10-29T19:09:00.003-08:00

Canon 7D, 70-200 f2.8L IS @ 200mm, 1/1600th at f2.8, ISO 100

I'm afraid I'm not feeling inspired today for blogging, but here is an image from this afternoon. The last of the clouds from the past days snow blew away in the night and we were graced with a beautiful sunny day. I got away from the computer for an hour or so to take a walk with my camera. Nothing earth shattering, I'm afraid, but I like the depth of this image.

I got an email today asking about what equipment to take on a wilderness photography trip next summer. It seemed like a good topic for a blog post since I imagine a lot of you may have the same question. Look for that tomorrow.

Yard Moose

2009-10-28T11:14:00.003-08:00

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8L IS @ 200mm, handheld, 1/40th, f2.8, ISO 800.

It even looks like winter now. Over the past couple of days 4 or 5 inches of snow have fallen and more is coming down outside as I type this. With winter comes some difficulties, the roads get nasty, my driveway becomes an utter disaster, but it is also remarkably beautiful. The spruces become coated with a thick layer of snow, and things start to look, well, Christmasy... In Fairbanks and much of Alaska, the stereotype of Christmas is the reality for much of the long winter. That stasis makes the beauty hard to appreciate, so it is the seasons of change, like right now, when I am most enthralled.

I photographed this moose on my property this morning. I live on ten acres and through the lower section of the property a small creek flows (or ices over depending on the season). The valley is used as a corridor for all kinds of animals. There were fox tracks all over the driveway this morning and a pair of moose tracks as well. They were fresh, and sure enough, as I was heading out, there they were, two cow moose, grazing unconcernedly on the willows. I grabbed my camera and made a few images. The light was just getting bright enough and the moose were cooperative, even with the 70-200 I was able to easily get frame-filling images. I like this image the best because it says something about the animal. Moose spend a lot of time in dense brush, and despite their enormous size (1000lbs or more) they often seem invisible. Trying to portray that, and still get a tight shot, I framed through a window of spruce boughs. This is not an image I thought long and hard about, but I know a bit about moose and the decision for how to compose was an easy one. I have some other frames from the morning I'll try to post in the next few days to show some alternatives. Wildlife photography happens on the fly and knowing something about the subject before you start shooting will help you work more quickly and with better results.

There is No Bad Light

2009-10-27T10:17:00.004-08:00

Canon 7D, 17-40L @ 17mm, 1/4 sec, f4, ISO 800, -1.0 stop exposure conpensation, vertical pan blur.

Well that isn't entirely true. Some light is easier to work with than others. You aren't going to get a beautiful landscape image in harsh mid-day sunshine. You just aren't. Sorry. But move into a grove of trees where things are shaded and suddenly you have nice diffused light for making portraits, flower shots, and such.

This morning however, was a challenge. I was walking home after dropping my truck off at the mechanic. It was about 8:30, snowing lightly and only the dim, blue, pre-dawn light was filtering through the flakes and clouds. In short, it was nearly dark. So how do you work with this? There are a number of ways. You could mount a tripod use a long exposure on a low ISO to keep the noise down and hope for the best. But likely the best, using that technique, would be a very blue looking snowy-forest. Not ideal. I was trying to work with how the scene felt to me. Early light here is very blue, I'm cool with that, so I let the camera go to blue without adjusting white balance to compensate. The forests of birches I was walking through always seem very surreal this time of day, kind of spooky even, all blues and whites. I didn't have a tripod, just my 7D and 17-40 f4L lens. So I created blurs. Zoom blurs, vertical and horizontal pan blurs. I jiggled the camera, shook it and spun around as fast as I could to see what kind of image I'd get. This is my favorite. It is a vertical pan blur and I think, in a very abstract way it represents the look of the boreal forest early on winter morning. I also like the way the dark middle almost makes the top and bottom appear like reflections, or a Rorschach test. It takes a moment to grasp what you are looking at, and I like that.

Even bad light has potential if you use it the right way.

Return of the Winter Birds

2009-10-26T10:16:00.003-08:00

Canon 7D, 500mm f4L IS, Tripod mounted, 1/80th @ f5.6, ISO 800.

I mentioned a few days back how, now that winter is arriving, the light is long and sweet for most of the daylight hours. Well its true, but in exchange, we have many fewer hours of light. In fact today we declined down to 8 hours and 28 minutes of possible sunlight, a loss of about 6 and half minutes over yesterday. But that is all beside the point. Yesterday I took advantage of the last hour of daylight to shoot the birds around our feeders. I've been trying for awhile to get a really excellent image of a Boreal Chickadee, but I still haven't attained it. The one above is fine, but not much more than that. Getting the perfect image takes a lot of time and effort, and I'll be working on this one for awhile. I think part of the problem is that I'm having a hard time visualizing exactly what I want from the image. This part of the creative process of photography that is most difficult for me. Determining what I want before I go out and try to get it. It is best to have some idea of the story you want to tell. In this case, I want to say something about the bird, its natural history and habitat, its ability to survive the cold. The image above does none of those things. Rather is a simple portrait, eating a sunflower seed no less. Hardly a natural food source here in Fairbanks.

My point in all this rambling is to think about your photos before you go out and try to make them. Ask yourself what story you want to tell and then think hard about what image will tell that story, then work to make the image. I'm still struggling with this myself.

A great image by Danny Green

2009-10-24T10:07:00.004-08:00

Image by Danny Green

I just had to share this image from this year's Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. This image is by Danny Green, and I absolutely love it. Great use of a long exposure to capture the wave of a huge starling flock passing over the trees. Motion, mass and volume all represented. Very cool indeed. You can check out the rest of the winning images here.

Canon 7D- thoughts

2009-10-23T14:29:00.003-08:00

So a week or so ago, I promised you all some more detailed thoughts on Canon's new 7D. This is in no way a detailed technical review, there are more than enough sources on the internet to find that information if you want it. Rather, I'm going to give you some of my thoughts on the camera, how I think it handles, what I like and what I don't. Here it comes, beware the faint of heart:

1. First of all I like the look of the camera. From the XXD line it upgrades a bit on the design end. The sharp lines where the pop-up flash rises in the XXD series is smoothed in the 7D, emulating to some degree, the contours of Canon's professional grade cameras. It is perhaps a touch heavier than my 40D without the battery grip. I also very much like that Canon dispensed with the silly pre-set options on the dial (landscape, portrait, close-up etc.) I never used those, and nor should any serious photographer. It is nice to see them gone. I wish it came equipped with a vertical grip such as the 1D and 1Ds series but that, I realize, is asking too much in a mid-line camera. There are also substantial upgrades to the body material, full magnesium alloy which should make it substantially more durable than the XXD line and more equivalent to the 5D.

2. I LOVE the resolution on the screen. It is far and away better than the 40D. Great colors, and sharpness with enough detail to get a solid idea of the noise in an image. An excellent upgrade.

3. I even more love the fact that this camera can shoot full HD video. This opens up a world of possibilities for new creative endeavors, expanding my work into the realm of multi-media. I'm no expert in this regard so can't say how it compares to other cameras, but it is hard to imagine a better image, the files are huge, sharp and detailed. One nit is that I can't seem to get the camera to autofocus while shooting video, I may just not have the settings right, but this is something I need to explore more.

4. The autofocus is an improvement over the XXD line, but the user interface to select among the 18 sensors is a bit cumbersome. Again, maybe I just need to play with this, but so far, I'm only able to figure out how to select a focus point manually by clicking the select button then moving the multi-controller. On my 40D I only had to adjust the multi-controller which took less time. The autofocus does suffer from Canonitis. That being, it is a bit slow and unreliable in low-light conditions.

5. I love that the pop-up flash (otherwise useless) can be used as a commander for off-camera flash. With the click of a few menu selections I can separately control three groups of flashes. The camera seems to seamlessly communicate with both my old Canon 420EX and my new 580EX II. For general portrait and studio work, this saves the hassle and expense of dealing with Pocket Wizards.

6. Noise. This camera is 18+ megapixels in an APS-C sized sensor. That is PACKING them in there so I'm not surprised there is a bit of noise. Low ISOs (100-400 or even 800) are quite acceptable and require relatively little clean-up in Lightroom. However at 1600 and above it starts to get messy. I've gotten decent results at 1600 but that was starting to push it. With good noise reduction software on your side, or small reproduction sizes you might be able to go higher.

Well there you go. As you can see, in general, I like this camera a lot. It isn't perfect, the noise and auto-focus could be improved, but for the bucks, I think its the best camera on the market.

Ruffed Grouse, and stuff...

2009-10-22T10:01:00.003-08:00

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8L IS, f2.8, 1/200th second, ISO 1600, handheld.

This lovely Ruffed Grouse visited a tree just outside one of my cabin's windows day before yesterday. I had just a moment to snap an image or two before it wandered off into the woods. Which leads me to a thought:

Chase Jarvis the excellent commercial and lifestyle photographer and teacher, has a new book out called The Best Camera (is the one that's with you). It is a collection of his images shot from his iphone as well as some thoughts on opportunistic photography. I haven't read it, and probably won't for a while. Nothing against the book, I'm sure its great, but I've got a stack of photo books I'm working my way through and that one is way down at the bottom somewhere. However the POINT of the book is very clear- Have a camera with you. Always. The image above is representative of that. It seems like, much to my girlfriend's chagrin, that I always have a camera somewhere within arm's reach. Camera gear is scattered about our very small cabin, and it constantly gets in the way. But THIS is why. If I'd had to go digging for a camera, the grouse would have wandered off and I would have missed it entirely. But because I had my 7D sitting on a nearby chair, mounted with the 70-200, I got the image. No it isn't as good as it would have been had I had the chance to mount up the 500 on a tripod, but it's a perfectly acceptable image that I got because I was ready. So carry a camera. Always.

Icy Sunset

2009-10-20T19:25:00.001-08:00

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8L IS, 1/250th at f9.0, ISO 100

I'm afraid there is no denying it anymore, autumn is over, even if winter's snow has not yet arrived. There are people skating on the local ponds and talk has gone from admiring the indian summer to eager for snow. This time of year, as I noted a few days back, is also extremely good for photography. The morning and evening colors last forever, the stars are bright and fill the sky from horizon to horizon each cloudless night.

This image is of frozen Ballaine Pond on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. Crystals of frost were forming on top of the ice and that is why I stopped, but it wasn't the crystals that drew my attention, but the way the trees and fading sun reflected off the ice.

Different

2009-10-19T11:30:00.007-08:00

Canon 7d, 70-200f2.8L IS, Handheld, 1/640th, f8.0, ISO 100

This is a rather atypical wildlife shot for me. It falls very much in to the "art" realm of my imagery. I've seen this kind of image (atypical framing and lighting, no distinct subject, but telling something of a story) fairly regularly in the fine art photography blogs and web sites. Most of my work falls into more classic structure. Yet I still kind of like this one. It's different, I don't feel like I've seen the image before, it tells a story and provides some scale. With increasing demand for atypical imagery, perhaps this kind of work has a future...

On another topic entirely, I'm currently reading David duChemin's book "Within the Frame". It is an excellent read, not about the technology of photography, but about vision. There are a million books out there on how to operate a camera, how to expose, depth of field, and other very teachable subjects. However, there are VERY few books on how to see. "Within the Frame" is one, "The Inner Game of Outdoor Photography" by Galen Rowell is another. So is the "Tao of Photography" by Gross and Shapiro. Teaching how to see, teaching art, is extremely difficult but learning it is even harder. These writers provide some insight into their techniques. I highly recommend you read them all. Carefully. And over and over again.

Flaming Birch

2009-10-17T21:16:00.002-08:00

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8L IS, 1/125th second @ f2.8, ISO 100, tripod mounted

This time of year can be difficult. Each day we are losing about seven minutes of sunlight. But what that means in terms of photography is that the sun rises less and less above the horizon and the light is long and sweet.

Backlighted images like this can be tricky. Its impossible, and not even desirable in a situation like this to expose for all of it. I much prefer the glowing, almost cloudy appearance of this. Closer to how this looked in reality, and much, much closer to how the scene felt.

P.S. I figured how to make the images on here bigger. I think its a BIG improvement. I hope you agree.

The Last Days of Autmn

2009-10-16T10:30:00.007-08:00

Since I acquired my Canon 7D last week I've been experimenting quite a bit with video, and mixture of video and stills. This is video, which I hope will become the first of a series, is the outcome of my initial experimentation. Enjoy. By the way, the music is by A.A. Bondy. He's great, you should really buy one of his albums.

Alaska: The Last Days of Autumn from David Shaw on Vimeo.

More Autumn

2009-10-15T09:34:00.008-08:00

Canon 40d, 17-40 f4.0 L, @26mm
ISO 100, f11, 1/10th second, handheld.
(Trick to handheld sharpness- sit down low, brace elbows on knees,
and click the shutter as you exhale.)

My good friend Cameron and I spent an afternoon tromping around the tundra of the White Mountains with our cameras in mid-September. It was a nearly perfect day for photography with a mix of sunshine, cloud shadows, rain squalls, rainbows, and rich clouded-colors. We hiked a few miles to the top of a ridge, then dropped down to a creek where I made this image. New England has the reputation of the best fall foliage, but Alaska, well Alaska is something else entirely. The window of color is brief, lasting maybe a week or two in a good year. But the colors are extraordinary. It is just like walking through a Vermont hardwood forest, except that all the trees are at knee level. Willows erupt with gold, Dwarf Birch spill like hot orange lava across the land, and Blueberries shed the color of a rich, red sunset. Dark granite and endless mountains. Really, what can be better than Alaska? I love this place.

Last Leaves

2009-10-11T20:20:00.003-08:00

Canon 7D, 70-200mm f2.8L IS at 200mm
f2.8, 1/40th second, ISO 400, handheld.

This is the first processed image out of my brand spanking new, hot off the assembly-line, first-shipment Canon 7D. I'll do a review of my impressions of the camera at a later time, but I wanted to post this image that I made yesterday. Most of the leaves are now gone, but a few linger here and there, clinging delicately to their twigs. We've been graced by an incredible autumn, it was near 60 today, and I'm trying to relish every moment of it. Certainly, it can't last forever.

Revisiting Old Images

2009-10-07T17:28:00.003-08:00

Canon 20D, 500mm f4L IS. 1/350th sec, f5.6 w/ 1.4 TC. ISO 200

I often get so preoccupied with creating new images that I forget to go back and look at old ones. But, I'm currently preparing a collection of images from a trip the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the summer of 2007. It was a trip gifted with good light, amazing wildlife, and good people. These images are set to accompany an article I have forthcoming in Birder's World. I've been going back through the original RAW images, to reprocess the best in Lightroom. Better software and more advanced skills on my part have been led to much better completed images. The one above is perfect example. For whatever reason, I'm not even sure I've ever processed it before. And that is why it's a good idea to occasionally go back and take a look through your archives. You never know what you may find.

First Snow

2009-09-24T14:06:00.003-08:00

Top: Canon G9, 1/30th sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 37mm.
Bottom: Canon G9, 1/25th sec, f5.6, ISO 100, 44mm.

We received our first snowfall of the season yesterday. I woke to a dusting on the ground around the cabin. Though it is beautifully sunny again today and the snow has disappeared, I know that fall is fading fast and it won't be long before the white stuff is here to stay. Adios Autumn, you were grand while you lasted.

Iconic Images and Boredom

2009-09-22T14:33:00.005-08:00

Canon 40d, 70-200mm f2.8 L, at 155mm
1/400th sec, f4.0, ISO 100.

I'm not sure who made this image first. Not this exact image, of course, I made this one. But I'm referring to the original. The first of the iconic "Bear catching salmon" shots. I think every serious photographer who has visited Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park has some rendition of this photo. And I'm confused by that.

Why is it that we struggle to imitate the classic images of the places we visit? In Denali, its Mt. McKinley over Wonder Lake from Ansel Adams Point, or Denali in Reflection Pond. Both of those standards were, of course, set by Adams himself. There are the Tetons with the Snake River, and the Grand Canyon from the South Rim, Monument Valley from the East, and of course Katmai Brown Bear catching salmon in the air at Brooks Falls.

When I made this image, I was standing next to another photographer, a teched-out fella who rolled up to the viewing platform dragging two suitcases loaded with gear, took over a good portion of the upper level with his cases and then bull-dogged his way into the prime viewing spot to set up, pushing tourists aside with flying elbows as he passed. When I found my way next to him I cracked some joke about making the salmon jumping/bear catching image and how strange it is we all want that image. He replied with braggadocio, "I'VE got more than a dozen!". Wow, I thought, not only is he an ass, but he's a boring ass as well.

But why is it that we want those images? We tick them off like some kind of photo-destination checklist. And I do it too. I've got the shot of Denali from Reflection Pond and the Grand Canyon and now the bear and salmon from Katmai. These images aren't marketable, there are thousands of them already out there with stock agencies, and publishers have seen the image so many times they are bored. Rightfully so too. Of the hundreds of images of bears I have from Katmai, this isn't my favorite. I like it OK, but I like it because it gets a rise from viewers. It always gets a wow, or a gasp. I think it gets this response because they've seen the image before and think it must take some great skill to get it. Trust me it doesn't. It's damn easy in fact. Set up your tripod, adjust exposure, compose, and shoot when the salmon jumps. Click, click, click. Done. No long glass required. This, as you can see in the photo information above was only at 155mm. But its what people think it takes that matters. Ah yes, the magic of photography.

I suppose we try for these shots because someone else did the thinking for us. We didn't have to come up with the composition on our own, we just had to frame and execute. Same with the great landscape shots, we just copy and click. This of course, is also why none of the copies are as good as the original. I know quite well that this is far from the best image made of of a Katmai Bear and its prey. The light ain't that great, the sharpness isn't exactly perfect, there is some motion blur... Like a tape that has been copied a dozen times, it doesn't retain the same depth or freshness of the original. Still, I'm glad I've got it. It gets the "wow"s at slideshows, and makes everyone think I must be some kind of expert. And I'm happy to perpetuate that particular myth.

Prince William Sound

2009-09-17T20:45:00.004-08:00

Black-legged Kittiwakes flushed from calving glacier
Canon EOS 40D, 70-200 f2.8 L, 1/4000th, f6.3, ISO 160, handheld

Continuing the series of summer catch-up images, today we have this shot of an enormous flock of Black-legged Kittiwakes taking off in front of a calving glacier. I made this image during a day-cruise of the northwestern portion of Prince William Sound. This was in early July and I was guiding a group as the National Geographic "Expert". I've visited PWS numerous times, but I'd never seen it under the bluebird skies like this particular day. The glacier was active and I was able to get numerous shots of seracs dropping into the water. This one however, was my favorite. There were thousands of Black-legged Kittiwakes foraging at the base of the glacier and when this particular block dropped into the sea they all lifted into the air. I like how they provide some perspective on the size of the glacier.

The trick to an image like this is timing. Have your camera ready, listen and watch the glacier. After missing the first few calving events you'll start to develop a eye for the active parts of the glacier, and that is where you have to pay attention.

Of course then you have to hope that there are a few thousand kittiwakes ready to fly off when the wave hits them.

Denali in Black and White

2009-09-15T21:16:00.003-08:00

Denali from the McKinley River, Black and White.
Canon 40d, 1/13th sec, f22, ISO 100, handheld while sitting.
17-40mm f4.0 L at 17mm.

One of the nicest aspects of wide-angle lenses is the ability to handhold at VERY slow shutter speeds. If, that is, you've got a steady hand and the right technique. For this image I sat down cross-legged on the gravel bar and propped my elbows on my knees to provide some extra support. 1/13th, the speed this image was made is about my limit for sharp images, but it was sufficient to smooth the glacial water in the foreground.

This was mid-day and very bright. The original image has washed out colors, but I liked the composition so I converted to black and white, then did a fair amount of post-processing in Lightroom to optimize the contrast. It probably could still use a bit of work, I'd like to bring those clouds a bit closer to true white.

I made this image after about a 3 mile walk from Wonder Lake. It is a nice easy hike, that on days like these has one of the best views in Denali National Park. Click on it for a bigger version.

Denali over Wonder Lake

2009-09-14T20:15:00.006-08:00

Denali, early morning from Wonder Lake. Canon 40d, 17-40 f4 L.
1/80 sec, f6.3, ISO 200, handheld from a bus window.
(Click for a larger version)

During both National Geographic trips that I led this summer, we had spectacular luck with the weather. During both trips we stayed at a lodge in the historic Kantishna Mining District which lies at the far western end of the Denali Park Road. The lodge is about five miles from Wonder Lake. If you've seen an image of Denali, there is a good chance it was made from somewhere within a few miles of where I made the above image.

This particular image has a message: Make the shot even if the conditions are not ideal. I made this from a bus window on our way out of the park on the last morning. I wanted desperately to stop and get out, set up the tripod and make the most of what promised to be a spectacular morning. Unfortunately there was no time for such luxuries, and my job was not to make images but to keep my clients happy and well informed. But at least I was there, and for that I'm grateful.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

2009-09-11T20:11:00.004-08:00

Brown Bear, Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
Canon 40d, 500mm f4, tripod. Minimal post-processing in Lightroom. Full frame.

From the very beginning, the first entry of this edition of the blog actually, I noted that I am an inconsistent blogger. And the last several months were proof. So here is to turning over a new leaf. .

There is a lot to catch up on since April. The whole summer has rolled by, I've packrafted Beaver Creek, led two National Geographic Expeditions tours and an Arctic Wild Polar Bear watching trip. I've written three or four new articles for Birds and Blooms, enjoyed a visit from my parents, am in the process of renovating the cabin and creating a studio/office space from the workshop. And there went the summer. Now its autumn, the leaves are falling and winter seems all too close. Oh, and I'm running a marathon a week from tomorrow.

So that should catch everyone up on where things stand from my end. I'm going to start putting up some select images from the summer's adventures. Starting with the one above from Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park. Brooks is THE place to watch brown bears fishing for salmon. This visit was early July, prime-time for bears and there were around a dozen at the falls. The visit was far too short, and I was guiding a group of tourists and so couldn't dedicate myself entirely to photography. Still I came back with several shots I'm very happy with. Keep your eyes open for a how-to shoot bears at Katmai essay, sometime in the not too distant feature.

More to come...hopefully.

Weekend in the Alaska Range

2009-04-05T21:50:00.002-08:00

Just have a couple of minutes to post a couple snaps from this weekend. I spent the past two days on a ski trip with 13 wonderful friends to a cabin in the northern foothills of the Alaska Range. Skied in yesterday afternoon in snowfall, and woke this morning to a classic Alaska alpenglow sunrise on the nearby Hayes Range. Not bad, not bad at all.

April Desktop

2009-04-01T09:59:00.003-08:00

Just click on the image for a larger version, download and set as your desktop. The image is from Big Bend National Park, back in January. Enjoy.

SERIOUS Flash photography

2009-03-30T09:29:00.004-08:00

Well, actually it was just a few minutes screwing around with camera, tripod, flash, off-camera cable, a compact Lumiquest softbox, and my own ugly mug. I've never been much into flash photography and honestly (in my mis-guided thinking) kind of looked down on strobe work as a crutch. Well it isn't a crutch, and in fact can greatly enhance many photographic situations. I'm not sure what brought me around to this thinking, but I believe it has something to do with the resurgence of my artistic sense in photography. I've been reading up on small flash photography, spending time reading the Strobist blog, and reading Joe McNally's new book : The Hotshoe Diaries. The latter is an excellent read. Joe 's writing is funny and entertaining but most importantly extremely useful. It isn't an instruction manual per se, rather he tells stories of how he made the images in the book. But there is little doubt you will come out at the end a lot more capable of making great light.

I also spent a few hours on Friday evening shooting a National Championship Nordic ski race. Tricky, fast, work in bad, overcast light, but I got a few decent images, I think. Look for a few shots in the near future.

Open North American Championships

2009-03-25T21:09:00.003-08:00

Each March Fairbanks hosts one of the major sprint mushing races of the season. Mushers from across the country show up for the three days of racing. It is also one of my favorite events to photograph. Mushing, like any fast-paced sport is tricky to photograph. Focus is major challenge so I take a lot of photos to make sure some of them have the right subject in focus (generally the musher or the lead dogs). This year I shot for two days, Saturday and Sunday. The image above incidentally is Egil Ellis who has now captured the record for most wins by a single racer. His team is made almost entirely of hounds instead of huskies. Damn fast though. Here are a few images I think worked out fairly well:

OK- Bird Photography

2009-03-23T17:48:00.003-08:00

Beware! The following is a long, opinionated, and possibly blatantly wrong series of thoughts on the art of bird photography.

Arthur Morris. There you go. That name says a lot about the current state of bird photography. Artie, as he calls himself, is an extremely talented photographer who has made his reputation with his own “brand” of imagery. His trademark is close shots, often portraiture, of wild birds in low angle, over the shoulder light. Very sharp with clean even backgrounds. It is stylish and simple. It WAS a distinctive look. I emphasize the word WAS because Artie’s work has become so synonymous with good bird photography that it seems every photographer shooting birds is doing their damnedest to imitate his style. Close. Sharp. Clean. As a result (and this is where my opinion rears its ugly head) run of the mill bird photography has become very, very, boring. The birds are beautiful and photographed in nice light they are usually in profile (ideally with the head turned 15 degrees toward the camera). The images are technically perfect and they all look exactly the same.

This striving for the “ideal” shot has led to a remarkable reliance on Photoshop. The program is used to clone out distracting elements (even very minor ones), to clean up non-uniform backgrounds, to remove unwanted parts of the image (other birds, evidence of humans, etc.), and even, in the more extreme cases, to replace parts of the bird that are not shown in ideal conditions with parts from other images. Thus it is possible to find shots of birds where a closed eye has been replaced by an open eye from the next photo in the series. A clipped wing may be replaced with one copied from the opposite side, feathers re-arranged, dirt removed from bills, feet placed in more aesthetically pleasing positions… WHERE DOES IT STOP?

At what point have we stopped portraying nature as it is and turned it into what we want it to be? I don’t think this is just a philosophical question. Nature photography has been criticized in the past for portraying nature as an ideal and not as reality. The late, great Galen Rowell received a scathing critique from an art critic who said that he was misleading the public through use of “colored filters” to believe that nature was a bright and colorful place when in fact it was mostly, brown, green, and gray. That critic was obviously wrong and I pity them for having spent so little time outside not to have seen the colors the world can produce. But if Galen’s true to life images could give that impression, what would that critic say about the kind of manipulations now common in bird photography?

But Dave, you say, we are talking about art not reality. In which case I say “touché…BUT…” photography is different. I’m sorry, but it just is. People, the viewing public, look at photography very differently from other forms of art. People BELIEVE photography in a way they don’t with other art forms. And when it comes to nature photography, well, I think nature should be appreciated in all its diverse forms, and our images should represent this, not just showing all the rare moments when our avian subjects appear in perfect light with clean backgrounds with their bills pointing exactly 15 degrees off of perpendicular. OK that was an off-subject tangent. My point is not that bird photography shouldn’t be viewed as art, but rather that bird photography shouldn’t all look the same.

The strange part is that I think many bird photographers recognize this in their gut. Because when the rare image appears on the Bird Photographer’s Network that has truly broken away from the formula like this one HERE. It gets rave reviews. Others, that I think are rather stunning with hidden textures and surprises like this one HERE, get notably mixed reviews because, in the eyes of many photographers, the image is close enough to being “correct” that it is wrong.

Now, after I wrote all this, I must acknowledge that I do love a good clean bird photo. These shots are easy to appreciate, and given the right situation and equipment are technically easy to execute. They illustrate the written word very well, but they are rarely memorable. The simple, the clean and sharp, may be the bread and butter of the wildlife photographer, but it should never be the only images made. As photographers we must remember to expand our vision beyond the normal. It is outside of the norm where we will find the truly exceptional.

Rant over.

Opportunism

2009-03-19T14:07:00.004-08:00

Some more candy today. I've developed what is beginning to seem like a network of folks keeping their eyes open for cool bird photography opportunities. And today, before I headed into town, a friend called to tell me she had a flock of Bohemian Waxwings hanging out in the choke cherry trees behind her house. So I made a short detour on my way in this afternoon and spent a half hour shooting from her deck. These images are just quick and dirty post-processing of the jpegs. I haven't dived into the RAW files yet, perhaps I'll have a chance to work on them a bit more this evening. Then I'll post a few of the "finished" images so you can see the differences. This should give me the chance to start talking a bit about bird photography. I've got some thoughts on the subject, so beware.

For your viewing pleasure here are a few more:

Thoughts on a new book

2009-03-18T20:36:00.004-08:00

I'm in the first pages of a new book: Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. It is certainly a book on psychology, but it offers a lot of insight into the creative process. I imagine over the course of the next week or so that I'll be writing more about it. The book has immediately provided me with some food for thought. Last night as I was trying to keep my tired mind concentrating on the book I found a short passage that talked about how age relates to expertise in different disciplines. The author (god forbid I have to spell his name out again) notes that skill and problem solving abilities in mathematics (a science with discreet, known, rules) peaks in the mid 20s. Skills in many other sciences, (chemistry, economics, physics, etc.) which have less distinct rules takes until the mid-30s to peak. But disciplines that have few rules like literature and philosophy take until a person is late in life to master or reach the best of their abilities. It seems that life experience is vital in these disciplines. There is a clear progression.

Where then does photography fall on this line? No doubt that photography has a technical side, even a scientific side, but much more importantly it is a creative endeavor. I venture then that I can spend a lifetime and still progress as a photographic artist. This realization is great big bag of mixed blessings. It means that as long as I work at it, I will continue to improve. But it also means that that true mastery is perpetually out of reach.

Thoughts?

Ice!

2009-03-17T19:09:00.002-08:00

Yes indeed the answer to the previous day's mystery photos, which no one even attempted to guess, is formations of ice. I happen to live on a small creek here on my Alaskan ten acres. The creek, during the summer anyway, flows beneath my driveway through a large culvert. In winter, that culvert ices up, all the way to the top and the overflow ice floods out along the valley floor covering my driveway in a thick layer of ice that builds up as more water spills out onto the surface. Now, nearing spring, the ice covers an area the size of a football field with several feet of rock-hard water. This is a hassle to say the least, but it makes for some very interesting photographic subjects. The images of the past couple of days show the layers as they are forming, one inch on top of another on top of another, forming what look like miniature mountain ranges, alluvial fans, and flood plains.

Needless to say, I won't be sad to watch my photographic subjects melt away over the next couple of months.

A couple more of...What?

2009-03-16T20:54:00.002-08:00

Well the lack of guesses on my quiz give me a hunch that I've stumped you all. So here are a couple more. And a hint: think water. I'll provide the answer tomorrow.

What?

2009-03-15T17:51:00.008-08:00

Photography is often considered truth. What ends up in the image must have been in front of the camera, right? Well of course, digital photography has entirely changed that. But what happens when the image shows only the reality the photographer chose to portray, or the subject is unknown to the viewer? For example, is this image and the one below, a moonscape? A lava flow? Death Valley? A landscape from space? Or something else entirely?

My point is that truth is subjective. Common subjects can be hidden in their details and the truth can be hidden behind layers of unknowns.

So what are these images? Any one have any guesses?

Back to something different

2009-03-12T17:53:00.003-08:00

It was a strange foggy morning here in Fairbanks. Usually I would have stayed in during such weather and worked on the computer as the fog burned off. But this morning, the gray light and naturally black and white landscape lured me out to some agricultural fields. Images were forming in my mind, as they often do when I'm inspired, and I went in search of them. The image above is one that I successfully found.

I'm going through a period right now of major inspiration and enthusiasm for photography. I want nothing more recently than to be exploring with my camera. I hope this period lasts because my work is spinning off in new directions, directions that I like, that are pushing me and, I hope, making me a better photographer.

Back to the basics

2009-03-11T16:07:00.003-08:00

For all my blather about art, vision, and the creative process. I still really enjoy just taking my camera, my big lens and and finding a nice cooperative bird to photograph. It doesn't take a lot of effort to frame, compose or light. You just arrange yourself in the best possible location for the sun, think about the background and the depth of field and start shooting. It's a bit like eating candy. Fun and easy to consume, but too much of it will make you sick. Still, for me, wildlife is a big part of my income. Many of the magazines I write for are birding and wildlife publications and these straight-forward images are the best accompaniment.

Anyway, this shot of a Great Gray Owl, I made yesterday afternoon about two miles from my house. The bird was very cooperative and perched in the same tree without flying for the hour I spent with it. I would have liked to get some flight shots, or something with a bit better background than the hazy blue sky, but I can't always have everything I want.

Something in the Water

2009-03-10T09:13:00.005-08:00

What is it with creatives right now that everyone seems neck deep in artistic introspection? David duChemin is spending the week re-evaluating his photography, shooting things way out of his normal range and not mentioning one word about gear. Zack Arias recently posted a widely viewed video on his inner struggle as an artist (I posted a link to this a few days back). And I've been tearing through books on the creative process and doing my best to see things...differently.

In one of the final chapters of The Photographer's Eye, the author writes about the kind of image we are trying to create and asks: Are we making an image to appeal to the most people or making an image that is unconventional and pushes the viewer? For a long time, I've found myself in that first, group. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that, but it IS stunting. Of course I want people to like my images, but I don't want them to be liked because they've seen them before. I once had a comment on one of my images where the viewer said, in a very complimentary way, that the shot looked like an Ansel Adams. But, I don't want my images to look like an Ansel Adams, I want my images to look like a David Shaw.

But what does a David Shaw image look like? Now that's tricky because my vision is constantly shifting and I don't want my images to look how they do right now, I want my images to look how they will be when they are the best I can make them. Thus I'm trapped in a viscious circle of constantly trying to be better than I am. This circle is a dangerous, often frustrating, but at times glorious place to be. As I spin in my circle, pushing my photography, I accumulate thousands of really, really bad images and a few that allow me to spin off in a new and better direction. With those few, I get to see things differently, see things better. And the more I push, the clearer my vision becomes.

Now all of this is not to say that I think we should ignore other artists to pursue our own vision. That, I'm sure, would lead us into a very dark place. Rather we need to see the images of others, explore them, learn from them, even emulate them. But the moment we start immitating them we've lost our own art. I know, I 've fallen into that trap and while down in the hole, I had lots and lots of company.

We need other artists to provide feedback, to be honest, and not ingratiating. We need the community,and the spirit that comes from being among others of the same mind. We need expertise, in our fields, and to constantly push ourselves to see the world with greater clarity.

Monday Morning Inspiration

2009-03-09T12:09:00.003-08:00

For those of you who haven't yet discovered the TED talk series. I encourage you to explore them. TED is a program designed to bring talks by scientists, creatives, politicians, and others important in their field to the general public. There are hundreds and most are around 15 minutes. You could easily spend a day on the site exploring and learning. Today however I encourage you to take a look at this one: by David Griffin, the Director of Photography for National Geographic. He isn't a terribly dynamic speaker but his presentation on what makes a great image a great image, and more importantly what makes a photographer great is worth watching. When the man in charge of images for magazine most associated with great photography speaks, you should listen.

Jpeg Photo Essay

2009-03-04T22:19:00.003-09:00

I just posted a quick photo essay with my recent images from the World Ice Art Championships on the great online photo magazine, JPEG.

Check it out here:

Different Directions

2009-03-04T12:34:00.003-09:00

As a photographer (and writer for that matter) I have a tendency to get too comfortable. To do what I'm good at, to forget to experiment and play with my art. Last night I didn't let myself get comfortable and instead made some images that are outside of my normal style. And you know what? I really like what I ended up with.

A friend and I went and shot at the World Ice Art Championships that takes pace each March here in Fairbanks. The multi-block competition is underway and the sculptors are working long hours to get their pieces in order. We spent an hour and a half shooting the artists as they worked and it was way too short.

It is good to break out of the norm every so often.

Intent

2009-03-01T21:25:00.005-09:00

I've been working my way slowly through "The Photographer's Eye" (which, incidentally, is improving by leaps and bounds) and last night I read the chapter on intent, which got me thinking about the concept. Since I've got this spinning around in my head, I thought I'd try to dump some of it out here:

The success of an image, (and here I'm writing about my own images) depends heavily on whether what I intended actually appears in the image. Another viewer may see the image and enjoy the subject, light, or whatever, but if it doesn't show what I wanted, the way I wanted, the image will often end up in my hard drive's trash bin. The intent can be very simple, such as showing a play of light or a pattern on the landscape. It is when the intent becomes more complex that the image itself becomes far more complex. This complexity is particularly important in the making of the image, but can be as well in its viewing.

Let's use the image above as an example. I made the shot last May in Florianopolis, Brazil. The shot was taken out of the window of an oyster restaurant. The lagoon is just inches out of the frame on the right side of the image. It was just past sunset. What drew my attention was the way the straight parallel lines of the roof contrasted with the jagged edges of the chipped paint and the curved top of the shuttered window. Showing that pattern and the light on the subject is about as far as my intention went. As far as it goes, I think I succeeded, simple intent resulted in a simple image.

Now let's jump on to the viewer's perspective. This is where things get fuzzy. Because you see, when the image isn't accompanied by text, it is completely open to interpretation. And as I try to look at this as a third-party viewer I could see this interpreted in numerous ways: the pattern of rooftop and cracked paint I intended, a statement of poverty, age, decay, or third-world lifestyle. I'm sure there are others.

What I'm getting at as I explore all this, is that what the photographer intends is not necessarily what the viewer will receive. So what is the point of intent? Perhaps most importantly it provides motivation for the photographer, thought, and mindfulness. And more than just about everything else, more important than our equipment or our location is the thought that goes into our images. When we put in effort, our images are get better, regardless of how they are interpreted.

There is more too it than that, of course, but this is as far as my head spinning has gotten. More later.

March Desktop

2009-03-01T12:24:00.003-09:00

Just click on this image to enlarge, then download and set as your desktop.

The image by the way was taken on a dock in the lagoon in Florianopolis, Brazil in May of 2008.

Watch this right now.

2009-02-27T10:25:00.003-09:00

I couldn't get this video to post correctly here, but follow this link and watch it on the creator's (Zack Arias) blog. It is a great video on creating art, photography in particular and the challenges that come with it. Go on, watch it, you won't be sorry.

HERE

Throw away images

2009-02-26T09:57:00.003-09:00

Back in the days of slides, before I made the switch to digital, I loved getting back my images, neatly packaged in boxes from the developer. I'd pull them carefully from their cases, lay them out on the light table, flip the switch on the table and watch the images come to life with the glow. Then the loupe came out and I'd lean over each image to examine it, check for color, focus, composition... Then I'd throw 75% of my beloved images straight into the trash.

And rightfully so. At least 75% and probably more like 90% of the images I took were garbage. But what of those images? Did they fill the gaps in the stories I wanted to tell? Or were they extraneous, adding nothing? Probably it was a bit of each, but editing, severe, heartless editing, is probably the most important thing outside of the snapping the image that we do as photographers. Now of course, I do it all digitally, and I've gotten good at it. A few days ago I made more than 200 images of my backyard birds and edited that selection down to the five images I posted here. I nixed about 98%.

What got me thinking about this was a BBC article I stumbled on today about Robert Frank's classic book The Americans. The article is about the images that did not make the cut, some of which were good images, but they failed to fit into the piece the way he had imagined. This is the importance of vision, of understanding where we want to take our art. Frank was telling the story of the American people, and some of his images, even good ones, didn't fit that tale. So he tossed them out. The article ends with this paragraph, which I like:

And this is the point - Frank had the desire and courage to throw away good frames. He had something to say, and that's the power of photography. To have a point of view at the heart of the work is what projects this photographic document to the top of the heap, even 50 years on.

Something for me to ponder the next time I pick up my camera.

Find the BBC article HERE.

More backyard photos

2009-02-23T21:55:00.002-09:00

I'm not in much of a mood to write today so instead thought I'd share a few images from this afternoon, shooting birds at the feeders. Needless to say there isn't a whole lot of variety in terms of species, but the light is getting nice and I've been enjoying standing out in the snow making images.

Common Redpoll. These guys are visiting in droves and devouring about two pounds of sunflower chips a day.

Boreal Chickadee. These are fairly common around the house and a few visit the feeders each day. They've got a thing for peanut butter.

Gray Jay. A family group has been visiting daily. They are something of bullies, scare the other birds off and the then proceed to devour whatever isn't bolted down. You can see some unmentionable disappearing down the gullet of this fella.

Black-capped Chickadee. Everyone's favorite. I had a friend a few year ago who used to say "If Chickadees were as big as Jays, no one would go into the woods." I think there is some truth to that.

Another Common Redpoll. Like I said, they are common.

No real secret to the images. They were all made with my 500mm f4 and Canon 40D. Tripod mounted using my Whimberly Sidekick Gimbal-type adapter.

Hopefully, I'll be feeling a bit more like writing tomorrow.

One Year Ago Today

2009-02-22T20:13:00.005-09:00

I just had dinner at the home of some friends. After dinner they showed us some photos from their recent trip to Peru. The images of the Andes, the high pampas, and the tightly packed cities made me miss South America something fierce. When I got home I went into a few of my own images from that end of the world and I wondered where I was exactly one year ago today. I scrolled through the images of my time in Bolivia until I found a few that were taken on February 22, 2008. The image above is one of them. Turns out I was photographing the high desert of southwest Bolivia near the Chilean/Argentine borders. It is a land rich in colors. Red rocky desert, pockets of green pampas grass, red, green, blue and white lakes, pink flamingos and an enormous deep blue sky.

I can't wait to get back to the southern hemisphere.

World Press Photographer's Awards

2009-02-20T09:59:00.004-09:00

I finally got around to checking out this year's World Press Photographer's Awards. Many of these images are very difficult to view. The winners are usually very painful to see, humanity at its worst. This year is no different. I thought initially I'd put one of the winning images here, but frankly, the ones that are most powerful, would probably turn a few of you away from this blog forever. However, if you have the constitution for it, I encourage you to click HERE to visit the winner's gallery. It will take some time to browse them all.

The effects of the financial meltdown, wars in Georgia and Kenya, and the aftermath of the earthquake in China are top finishers. And I warn you some of them will bring tears, to your eyes, bile to your throat, or disgust to face. But the winners are also speckled with images of hope, beauty, and how remarkable the world is.

A good lesson from these images is that not all of them are taken in war zones, not all are taken in remote, distant or exotic lands. Many are the stories of normal people. People with stories to tell. People, like many that live in your community. The images are everywhere, it just takes some searching, and no small amount of bravery, to go find them.

Here are three galleries I recommend:

Post Election Violence in Kenya by Walter Astrada- (One of the most difficult to view, but extremely powerful)

Men's 10m Platform Divers at the Bejing Olympics by Julian Abram Wainwright- (Remarkable stop action black and white)

Snow Leopards by Steve Winter- (Incredible images of wild snow leopards and the Himalayas, great use of camera traps)

More on the Rules

2009-02-19T19:31:00.003-09:00

My post on the rule of thirds from a couple of days back got me thinking about these rules. And it occurred to me that much of the photography I admire does not follow photographic rules of any kind. The images are often "incorrectly" exposed, unsharp, are crowded, and do not adhere to any guidelines for composition. But they have passion. Great examples of this can be found on the Magnum Photo Blog and on the recently formed Burn Magazine. (Really, go check these out right now, and then come back and finish reading this entry so you know what I'm talking about. Go on. Go.)

OK, now that you've seen some of these images I can go on:

As I think about this, I realize that the things I usually shoot, nature, wildlife, even travel portraiture adhere to more strict rules. Actually, that isn't fair. It's the WAY I shoot nature, wildlife and travel portraiture that follows more strict rules. But seeing these images so different from my own, reminds me of what the art of photography can be. There is only one rule that matters: demonstrate passion, emotion, and honesty. How you go about it is up to you. The images you end up with will be the judge of your success.

A Short Rant

2009-02-18T19:49:00.003-09:00

A few days back I posted a short and somewhat humorous piece from the Colbert Report about a poor chap who was arrested by Amtrak rent-a-cops for taking photos of trains for an Amtrak photo contest. Well today, care of "A Photo Editor" I found a much less funny example from across the Atlantic. England has just passed laws that allow the arrest of photographers and confiscation of their equipment if there is reason to suspect that their images could be used in the planning of terrorist attacks.

Photographers Rights UK from Nick Turpin on Vimeo.

It's madness I tell you! And another warning to stay vigilant about our rights on this side of the pond.

How to Kill Creativity

2009-02-18T09:56:00.002-09:00

Go and catch the stomach flu.

That, as far as I can tell, is the most efficient way to kill any form of desire to create new things. I'll be back when I finish kicking this thing.

Know the Rules, Then Break Them

2009-02-16T19:53:00.011-09:00

Photographers love to make rules about how a good image should look. Then of course they say with superiority how you really shouldn’t follow all those rules of convention anyway. Today, I thought I’d write, in a bit of detail, about one of the most hallowed of photographic laws. It is known as “The Rule of Thirds”.

The premise is straightforward: the subject of an image should fall on the lines that divide the frame in thirds. Like so:

Following this rule generally creates pleasing images. Subjects placed in the center of the frame often look unbalanced. Today, I thought I’d take a few images from a recent trip to Big Bend National Park as some examples of how this works: The first shot is a pleasant desert landscape that adheres closely to the rule of thirds:

Now let’s drop some third lines across the image so you can see what I mean.

Notice how the agave plant in the foreground falls almost exactly at the meeting point of two, thirds lines and the top of the mountain on the upper left is just about meeting the top third line. The peak on the upper right and the plant play off each other nicely. This makes a nice well-balanced composition.

The next two shots are birds. Now at some point, I’ll probably do another post on my thoughts on bird photography in particular but in the mean time, lets stick to these two images. Both follow the rule of thirds. The first is a horizontal image of a male Western Bluebird:

Below you can see here how the third lines bisect right through the bird. This composition is typical but effective in the situation where the subject is too distant to provide a frame filling image. Also note the way the bird looks into the frame and the way it's downward tilting bill emphasizes the angle of the branch.

The next is a vertical image and the same rules apply here as well. This one is an Acorn Woodpecker foraging up the side of a dead tree:

And with the third lines in place, the lines hit very close to the bird’s eye, which is usually the focal point of a wildlife shot.

Next we start to bend the rules a bit. Panoramic images already disrupt the familiar rectangular format. They spread across a horizontal (or rarely vertical) plane to expand the view. It creates the sense of an expanded horizon, and occasionally this is the case when multiple images are stitched together. However, often panoramics are simply regular photos cropped to fit the format, as is this image of the Chisos Mountains:

I chose the format to emphasize the length of the rainbow and the similar shape of the mountains dropping into the surrounding desert. Now when I throw a thirds grid over this image, stretched to fit, you can see how the same rule of thirds actually applies in this format as well.

The mountain top hits the top line and the rainbow bends through the top line twice, while the horizon line angles left more or less along the lower third.

As with any rule however, the rule of thirds can, and should, be broken. This is becoming particularly true in advertising and fashion imagery. Look through the New York Times Magazine fashion section on any given Sunday and you’ll see the rule of thirds thrown out the window on almost every image. Because the rule of thirds is so often used, the “recipe” is familiar and to push boundaries it must be broken. This works well with advertising products that are also trying to push boundaries. It makes an important statement when the style of clothes and style of photos combine. Landscape photography is not at the cutting edge of photographic art. We, meaning the general photographic audience, still like classic landscapes. Pushing the conventional boundaries (sweet light, saturated colors, complimentary lines) does not yet happen on a regular basis. Now that isn’t to say the rules are never broken, but the situation must warrant it, unlike fashion photography where the rules are broken on principle. One example of a situation warranting a break with convention is the image below. In this image I wanted to emphasize the mosaic of clouds while still providing enough of the landscape. Here I was trying to demonstrate the sense of space that dominates the desert of Big Bend. I like this image quite a bit, but notably it wasn’t among those from my Big Bend series recently selected by an editor for publication in a photo magazine.

And here I’ve taken the same image and dropped a grid over it. You can see how the horizon line falls substantially below the 1/3 line:

The moral of the story is this: Just like legislative laws, know the rules, they exist for a reason, but don’t follow them blindly, constantly question why the exist and break them when you should.

The Importance of Light

2009-02-14T18:56:00.006-09:00

The sun is finally rising far enough in the sky now that it is mid-February that my bird feeders are now lit up by the late afternoon light. Yesterday I spent a few minutes standing out in the snow with my 500 snapping photos of the many Black-capped and Boreal Chickadees and Common Redpolls that were swarming the yard. For the first 20 minutes, beams of low-angle sunlight filtered through the trees occasionally lighting up the birds as they flitted in the branches of the willows. Eventually of course, the sun settled behind the hills. I continued to shoot for a few minutes until I realized that the time for photography had passed when the sun disappeared.

The first image, above, was taken when the sun was still shining and casting lovely light on the birds. The second, below, was just a few minutes later after the sun had gone. Both are sharp, both have good detail and clean backgrounds. It is the light that makes all the difference.

Funny, but not really.

2009-02-13T12:43:00.003-09:00

I just stumbled on this video from the Colbert Report. Humorous, but not really when you think of what this means in terms of photographic freedom.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Amtrak Photographer

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

Photography Advice from Strunk and White

2009-02-12T16:40:00.004-09:00

Anyone who has taken a college level English or Creative Writing class has likely stumbled upon a little book entitled The Elements of Style. This is a classic about writing the English language, but despite its bland subject matter (grammar) is a surprisingly fun read. It is not to teach you grammar that I write this post. Rather, as I was paging through the book last night, I found a short passage from E.B. White's introduction quoting William Strunk that I found interesting:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

It struck me right away how that paragraph can easily be interpreted to photography. In fact I think that is the best non-photographic, photographic advice I've encountered. So bear with me as I take the liberty to re-write it in photographic terms:

Vigorous photography is concise. An image should contain no unnecessary elements, a photo essay no unnecessary images. This requires not that the photographer make all images simple or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in the abstract, but that every element counts.

I think that last bit is the key to the it. Include what you need, and nothing more.

A few words on gear

2009-02-11T15:10:00.005-09:00

For all my ranting in previous posts about how much gear doesn't matter, I still own and use a lot of it. And because "What kind of camera/lens/tripod/filters/memory cards/backpack/toothbrush do you use?" is the one question I get most often, I thought I'd answer that right away. Here is a quick list and some thoughts on my gear:

1. Tripod- Gitzo GT5540LS- (carbon fiber 4 section legs)/Kirk Ball Head/Wimberly Sidekick
Let's start with the most important piece of equipment in a photographer's quiver. No I'm not talking about the camera (that is assumed) I'm talking about the TRIPOD. If there is one tool that will improve your photography it is this. Now mine is particularly good. I finally got around to buying the best because I got sick of messing around with and being frustrated by cheaper models. But even an inexpensive one will greatly improve your shooting. If you don't have one, go get one. Now.

2. Camera bodies: Canon 40d and Canon 20d and a Canon G9 point and shoot.
I carry two bodies on most of my adventures. It gives some comfort if one of them croaks to have a backup. Plus when the shooting is fast and furious I can mount them both up with different lenses. The 40d is a good mid-level camera, I have very few complaints. Good noise reduction up to about 400 or even 800 ISO, big screen and live view. The 20d is a bit out-dated but it has been very reliable for several years now and I refuse to get rid of it until I can afford to upgrade. The G9 is a great little camera to carry around. It gives publishable results and is RAW capable. Most importantly it goes everywhere.

3. Lenses
A. Canon 70-200 f2.8L - This is my all time favorite lens. Great range, sharp, fast, good bokeh and works for everything from portraits to landscapes to wildlife. Worth every dime of its hefty price tag.
B. Canon 17-40 f4L- My wide angle. When I'm not shooting wildlife I keep this lens mounted up on one of my two cameras with the 70-200. Good, sharp, but I wish it was a stop faster.
C. Canon 500 f4L- The big lens in my quiver and my standard for wildlife. It is big so draws a bit of attention which can be a problem when I'm trying to concentrate on something, but is a good conversation starter at slower moments. It is sharp, fast and takes the 1.4x or 2x Canon teleconverters for extra magnification (though my bodies won't focus automatically with the 2x).
D. Canon 100 f2.8 macro- As much as I love to shoot macro shots this lens doesn't get a lot of use. When I'm packing light, this one stays at home. Still, it has great bokeh, works as a surprisingly good portrait lens and easily magnifies to 1:1.
E. Sigma 30mm f1.4- Since I bought the 17-40 this one also sees less use. I still like the lens a lot. It is sharp, very fast and proves that you don't have to have Canon lenses to have good glass. Plus it was fairly inexpensive for this good of a piece of equipment.

4. Flash- Canon 420 EX Speedlight.
This is a notable weak point in my gear list. It does fine, but just that, no more.

5. Accessories
A. On-flash soft box for portraits- useful in the right circumstances.
B. Flash extender/magnifier for telephoto work- Useful for fill-light on wildlife.
C. Polarizers for every lens but the 500mm- These are on my lenses almost all the time.
D. Cabled remote trigger- Vital for long exposures, and for maximum sharpness.
E. Cable flash extender- Useful for adjusting flash direction.

6. Packs
A. Mountainsmith Paragon- This is mostly my storage pack at this point.
B. Crumpler Brazilian Dollar Home- This is my main bag. It can handle all my photo gear minus the 500, my laptop and accessories. It organizes strangely from the top which makes quick access to stuff lower down a bit tricky, but it is a shoulder bag which allows me to work out of it when needed. Also, because it is a shoulder bag, I've never even gotten a sideways look from airline personnel when carrying it on.
C. Custom made Apocalypse Design case for the 500- This is a basic rectangular padded case with handles and a shoulder strap. It can hold the 500 with camera and teleconverter mounted on it. When I travel I carry this and and the Crumpler as my carry-ons. I've never had a problem, though it all gets a bit heavy on long walks between gates.

D. Many pocketed waist belt designed for archery- This is large enough to hold a wide angle lens, filters, extra batteries, a small water bottle, snacks and other knick-knacks when I'm shooting in the field. I attach the case that came with the 70-200 onto the belt to hold that lens when not in use. It provides easy access to all my stuff without having to take off a backpack. This is a much cheaper though perhaps somewhat less functional alternative to the excellent system made by Think Tank.

That is the bulk of my gear. The fact is that no matter how much crap you own it is you that makes the images. The cool lenses, tripods and bodies are tools to get the images you want but tools only. They cannot replace the photographer's eye, artistic sense, or emotion. Start with the art and then start worrying about stuff.

A couple of links

2009-02-10T22:09:00.003-09:00

I wanted to direct you to a couple of excellent recent posts on two of my favorite photography blogs. David duChemin's Pixelated Image Blog is a daily read for me. I think he tackles photography from the right attitude and his regular blog posts are thoughtful and well written. Case in point are two posts from earlier today Check them out HERE and HERE.

Another blog I regularly visit is that of a great candid portrait photographer, Matt Brandon. He creates exceptional images from Southeast Asia and India. His recent multimedia gallery is well worth the three minutes it takes to watch. HERE.

Enjoy!

Point and Shoots

2009-02-10T09:19:00.004-09:00

There is a definite elitism among those of us who carry big, cameras, big tripods, big lenses, and even bigger backpacks and shoulder bags in which to carry around all of our big equipment. There is the belief, or perhaps hope, among many photographers starting out. that these tens of thousands of dollars of gear is what is required to be a good photographer. This belief runs so deep that an entire industry is built on getting people new to the hobby to upgrade and upgrade and upgrade until they too are carrying around 60lbs of gear in a backpack the size of a small studio apartment.

There is however a solution. It's called a point and shoot. After many years of hauling around a huge SLR and some collection of lenses to every event, last year I bought a little, though fairly high quality, digital point and shoot. (The Canon G9, not that it really matters). Now instead of hauling around the big glass, or (as often happened) carrying no camera at all when I'm headed out for a ski, run, or walk with the dog, I carry my point and shoot. It is simple, easy and has put an end to the times when I'd wished I'd brought a camera but hadn't. Another side effect is that the camera has rejuvenated some of my photographic creativity. Shooting with the SLR, I often feel as though there is some obligation to make good images, but I don't feel that with the point and shoot. I am free to make hundreds and hundreds of photos of complete crap and I don't feel at all bad about it. So I explore and experiment and just fiddle around with it when I find a subject.

So if you are a new shooter or haven't yet been able to afford dropping the dollars on the big cameras, stick with your point and shoot and remember to play with it. Carry it with you, take, make, and create pictures. That is where real photographers come from, not out of big bags of camera stuff.

Follow-up to Ticked Off.

2009-02-09T10:45:00.005-09:00

I was pleased today to see the Anchorage Daily News had excellent editorial about the recent dust-up in Juneau over funding at UAF. They express disappointment (though honestly I would have preferred a bit of outrage), over both Rep. Fairclough's absurd questioning and President Hamilton's lackadaisical, and rather silly, response. Check out the editorial HERE.

Oh, and I promise, my next post will be about photography.

Ticked Off.

2009-02-06T18:42:00.005-09:00

So don't say I didn't warn you. I made it three whole posts without broaching controversial topics. But this was too much to pass up:

According to Mark Hamilton, the president of the University of Alaska, conservationists need to "mature". He was questioned by one of Alaska's illustrious representitive (Anna Fairclough, a Republican from Eagle River) about why the the state should increase funding for the university when most of the students are anti-development. Hamilton replied that really UAF faculty and students are as conservative as they come and and that those that aren't will grow up and mature to see the "real world".

So Mark Hamilton thinks I'm immature for believing it is not ultimately in our best interest to rape and pillage the planet for every dime of profit we can squeeze out of it.

Well right now, I'm sticking my tongue out at him. So There!

Bolivia Tour!

2009-02-06T09:44:00.004-09:00

In cooperation with my brother's nonprofit organization (Shine-A-Light) Wild Imagination will be offering a unique tour of Bolivia this fall. This is a trip that will step well beyond normal tourism as we explore modern Aymara and Quechua culture, adventure to a remote community lodge in the Amazon and trek down ancient Inca trade routes. The trip will explore the major areas of the country, the Andes around La Paz, the Yungas region of the mid-elevations and the Amazon. Check out the web site HERE to find out more about the trip and why you should join us.

What I'm reading

2009-02-04T18:52:00.004-09:00

My bookshelves are covered in photography books and with all due respect, a good portion of the how-to guides are crap. There are a few jewels in the rough, generally those that move past the technicalities and into the philosophy and the thought process of the artists. Galen Rowell's The Inner Game of Outdoor Photography and Phillipe L. Gross' The Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing are perfect examples. These are the kinds of books that move beyon f-stop and depth of field to discuss how to see, find, and interpret images. In other words how to make your photography art.

Right now I'm reading another book that tried to blend, somewhat successfully, the art and the science of imagery. It is called The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman. I'm enjoying it overall. The text is well thought out and here I think, in that respect, he is on the right track, but I'm finding many of the images less than compelling. Then again, I'm not far into it and that may change. Perhaps I'll post a more detailed review at some point later.

Latest Incarnation

2009-02-03T11:36:00.003-09:00

For those of you who have followed my blogs of the years (or tried to follow them as I inconsistently posted) this is the new Wild Imagination Photography Blog. In the previous versions of the journal, I've tried to stick to photography, my work, and writing. And I blame that limitation, at least in part, for my repeated and lengthy hiatuses from blogging. So this time, I'm not going to limit myself, at least not as much.

So for those of you who are sensitive to topics like politics, the environment, climate change, wilderness, technology, living off the grid, life, my adventures, and how I choose to trim my beard, then you'd best stay away.

To the rest of you: Welcome.