Outer Banks DLWS

DLWS is heading to the home of flight, Kitty Hawk, NC for a great DLWS event. DLWS has an amazing staff and this particular event was conceived by our own Brad Moore and it’s a winner!This is the first time DLWS will be venturing to the Out Banks and I know I’m looking for to it. You can find out some details here, the rest, well, you just gotta come!

Does he EVER stop?

Scott over at LensCoat just keeps coming up with great gear for us to take great care of our gear! His latest goodies are lens pouches (scroll down a tad). I know. lens pouches are nothing new, heck most Nikon lenses comes with them now. But these are made out of basically waterproof neoprane (my feelings, not LensCoat). These cases also snug right up to the top of the lens because they are extra long. The cases in the back are hold a 14-24AFS, 24-70AFS with shd and 70-300VR. Sweet!

My favorite is the one up front here that I use for the 1.7x. It clips right to my belt making it easy to take on and off the 600VR while protecting it.

When it POURS buckets

We get a lot of calls asking why our WRP PhotoPacks don’t come with a built in raincover. The answer is real simple, it adds to the cost and SIZE of the photopack. It has to be pouring buckets before I worry about  my MP-1 PhotoPack. But there are those times, like in AK when it’s just pouring and the MP-1 is just lying there when a little extra cover might be handy.

That’s why I went out and bought a REI Duck’s Back Raincover (it even has a wildlife name, what more can you want?). This thing is bulletproof, I’ve tested it using the garden hose blasting away while it was covering the MP-1. It fits over the entire photopack even when it’s on your back. It folds flat and hides away in the back zippered compartment when not in use (adding nothing to the size of the photopack, very important these days when traveling by air). Whether it’s our photopack or some other manufacture, it’s a great way of protecting your bag without adding to its size. I use the 80lr for the MP-1, 60lr for the MP-3.

Arctic Butterfly Brite

The latest cleaning gear from VisibleDust just arrived and all I have to say is……kewl! The new Arctic Butterfly Brite is the Arctic Butterfly with its own light. It works great!

Be sure to NOT spin the brush when it’s in the mirror box. Spin it for 10sec prior to use OUTSIDE the mirror box. This charges the brush so it just “sucks” up those small particles off the CCD. And be careful with the light switch, go too far and it spins the brush. You don’t want to do this while it’s in the mirror box.

While I was ordering the Arctic Brite, I picked up some of the new Vswabs for the D3. While I never had a problem with the old ones, these will make it easier to clean the CCD when I’m in a hurry.

The VisibleDust folks also came out with a 7x Loupe which might be darn helpful to spot those really small, annoying particles.

An Issue I Feel Strongly about

I’ve not even spent enough time with these magnificent creatures yet, and they are on my priority list. My concern is, time isn’t on their side or mine. Please, take a moment to check out the facts and perhaps get involved. This just came in which might be of help to you.

Though America’s polar bears are now listed as “threatened,” this label has come without any new protections. In fact, the bear’s future just became more uncertain. You’re help is needed to ensure polar bears are not harmed by careless oil drilling.

Problem
After assuring the American people that safeguards were in place to protect polar bears from oil and gas exploration, the Department of Interior gave a free pass to oil companies for harming polar bears.

Solution
Legislation called the Polar Bear Seas Protection Act has been introduced in congress that would put commonsense protections in place before oil and gas exploration is allowed to harm polar bears. Your voice is needed to help make this bill become law! Click on the button to learn more and take action.

You Could Read a Couple of Things into This

I give my right arm for those moments you capture when wildlife does something humorous, something we humans can so easily read into what’s really not there but is funny to us. Such is the case for this photo of a pair of Canvasback Ducks photographed a couple weeks back at our AK Base Camp.

I’ve just finished 9 days of populating  2x 2TB of new hard drives and repopulating 3x 1TB of old drives (I was spared messing with another 2TB) as I expand my rabbit farm to manage all the digital files (having to make a rabbit hutch too boot!). What a royal pain in the butt and a bore moving, doing chksum and recreating thumbnails. I’m just now able to upload the images from AK & the air races to the network. I can read a whole new meaning into that kwaking duck photo after this experience.

What’s really happening is there are two males and one female flying past us (one male is out of the shot). The two males are after the one female (birds & the bees stuff) and I guess kwaking in her ear as they fly is the way to her heart. They buzzed right on by and all the way to the end of the marsh. I wonder who got the girl in the end?

Photo captured by D3, 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

How dooo you do it?

It would seem my latest blog postings from Reno Air Race Pylon Racing Seminar broke the camel’s back. I’ve received so far 203 emails with the question, “How dooo you do it?”

The question was asked with two inferences:

both with the implication that I am some how not human. There is always that possibility. And while the perception is better than reality, there is a real answer to the questions.

How is it I’m one week in the mighty redwoods, the next chasing tornadoes, the next in Alaska photographing critters and then in Reno photographing race planes (and in between working with Sage Grouse)? The start of the answer is that my best friend, business partner and wife are all the same person, Sharon. She makes it possible for me to follow my passion, photography. There’s none better and I simply couldn’t do what I do without her!

Next, I have some great friends, some mighty great friends who support my wackiness in the pursuit of a photograph! There is also the fact that I work hard and long hours, when I have to. Lastly, and this is very important, I’m incredibly fortunate, someone, someplace just simply likes me.

As to the plane photography, well, that answer is much more tangible. My friend Scott from NPS put the 500VR in my hand (that’s because my 200-400VR was still in route, back from AK and the last project). A guy named Richard made sure I was in the right place (100yards away) for the L-39 Jet or modified P51 as they screamed by the ridge blowing needles off the Junipers, at the right time (thanks Richard!). He also shared some of the “secrets” to his aviation photography one of which is shooting in Shutter Priority for the prop propelled planes. You don’t want a frozen prop (which I knew and first tried to accomplish in Aperture Priority. Wrong!) so you shoot around 1/250 for some planes, 1/500 for others. That’s new territory for me. I in turned shared a couple of my secrets with Richard, like a panning trick. All the shooters at the Pylon Seminar were very generous with their knowledge. I want to thank them all!

And all of this is nothing you can’t do! Well, I doubt you’ll find another Sharon, she’s one of a kind. But you can find partners be it spouse or shooting bud that can makes things happen for you. You can practice your panning, get the 500VR (buy or rent) and with time, makes the shots. And then it’s up to you to follow your passion!

Photos captured by D3, 70-300VR / 500VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

I Passed!

Just as the sun rose today, we were on the flight line in the attempt to make some fine art photographs of some mighty fine plane lines.

The actual sunrise and its flaming red color unfolded as I sped up Hwy395 to Stead Airport (home of the Reno Nat’l Air Races). I personally didn’t want the red with the steally silver Mustang and was quite pleased with the light after the color.

And the light stuck around long enough to make a couple of shots of this incredibly colorful T-9 tail.

After the morning media briefing (who were in school just like the pilots) it was back out to the pylons to photograph the planes. This year, I was the only “pylon virgin” in training. The photographers out here are very specialized, very dedicated and very friendly and helpful. Can’t thank them enough to their schooling and friendship!

Pylon 4 shooting for the Unlimited Class was really, truly, just kick ass fun! There were a number of P-51 Mustangs and when they flew up the ridge, past us, around the pylon continuing on the coarse, well, it was just spectacular!

So, at the end of the day I got my patch, passed the class, qualified and welcomed to the media for the 10-14 Sept Championships. Now that I’ve finally made it here after all these years of wanting to, I can’t wait for the races and to be back with this great group of photographers! Want to thank Scott of Nikon NPS for making it possible for me to be here!

Photos captured by D3, 14-24AFS / 500VR (handheld) on Lexar UDMA digital film

The ole Silver-gas Hawk

Where the heck is Moose now? Moose is at school, Race Rookey School that is. My good friend Scott Diussa who runs NPS mentioned a month ago that Nikon would be at the Reno Air Races Rookey school. Most don’t know but I’m really into planes so I instantly asked, nicely, if he could get me in. Well, here I am!

The 1st day was great, filling 9 – 8GB cards will point blank race photography. I’m very fortunate that one of the best in the business, Richard VanderMeulen, is here and is a really, really nice guy. He shared with Scott with me so much information in photographing this sport. I wish he had a website I could send you to to see his work, it’s gorgeous.

Nikon is here with lots of goodies including the 500VR. It was the 200VR and 500VR that I shot with all day, handheld and man, what great, sharp lenses for this sport. All the photos here except the bottom one were taken with the 500VR. It’s 04:30 and I’m up and going, again. Just gotta photograph the line at sunrise.

Photos captured by D3, 500VR / 24-27AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

They trying to kill me?

I know it’s good for me (and that knowledge makes me feel so much better) and lord knows I need it, but this getting up at 03:30 to literally climb to the top of a mountain, chasing these “kids” just could be the death of me yet.

We reached the top just as the sun kissed our feet. In the far distance you can see the Sweetwater Mtns that top out at 11,672 and below you can see the road we came in on. This is all part of the continuing project I’m documenting on Greater Sage Grouse I talked about last week on Scott’s blog. (The wildfires gave the distant sky a weird color this morning.)

This morning was a success with four, four day old GSG chicks briefly caught, tagged and then released. It was a bad week this past week with 7 broods lost to predation. The first six months of life are pretty darn hard for these birds. Off in the background are the Sierra Peaks and Sonora Pass. (Notice how steep the hillside is, I want you to feel sorry for me, sort of.)

And the object of the quest, the cutiest little things you’ve ever seen! This is a four day old GSG chick and since it hatched it has traveled by foot nearly a mile to where they were caught them this morning. With legs shorter then Q-Tips, that’s just a huge distance to travel in such a short time. I really don’t have anything to complain about, climbing this hill, at least I have long legs!

Photos captured by D3, 70-300VR, 14-24AFS, 105VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

Introducing Jarred Sutton

I want to introduce you to Jarred Sutton. A pretty cool kid who reminds us of our own son Jake (they are the same age). We met and shot with Jarred this past week at our AK Base Camp. He was the Nikon sponsored “kid” (soooo cool that Nikon does that for upcoming wildlife photographers) for the week.

Now Jarred asked one boat load of questions, was eager to the point of driving instructors nuts but man, he knows which way to point the camera! He has got some gorgeous images and a willingness to take on everything that is new. Check out his blog, and keep checking out his blog because this boy has something to offer the world!

OH, BTW, Jarred shot with the D200 and 80-400VR. He had to work to get these images with the slow AF speed of the 80-400VR!

Epson 1900 – king of glossy!

We just finished our AK Base Camp. One of the very important aspects of dealing with photo buyers is the delivery of Match Prints. Our big need is to delivery on a paper stock that matches not only the rich color of our photographs but the glossy nature of the magazines we’re selling images to. Well, the trade secret is out on how to get a leg up on the competition.

The Epson 1900 is a killer printer for just this, and many other printing applications. The prints coming out of the 1900 on Premium Luster and Premium Photo Paper are simply spectacular! If you counting, yes that’s the 4th Epson printer in our office. There’s the 7800, 3800, R340 and now the 1900. Each of these printers serve a specific task which is why they are all here (and I can’t leave out the P5000 which I don’t talk about much but is used on EVERY project and can’t live without).

And now until the 28th, the folks at NAPP have scored a special deal for NAPP members. Just another reason to be a NAPP member and another great product from Epson that I think if you’re in the business of supplying prints to photo buyers, you gotta have! Between its glossy print quality and speed, it just puts you and more importantly your photographs ahead.

What's the Answer?

A couple of shots from our three hour tour last week. There’s just something about these tree weathering all the storms and still able to stand tall and enjoy the summer warmth that I like.

Now the crew from Base Camp last week might be asking things like: “Where do we drop the black point,” or “Which Nik filter did you use,” or “How much can you make from that photo and where?” All, very valid questions but to me, the answer is simply, I like the moment the photograph represents which for me, is priceless. That’s why I go click.

Photos captured by D3, 24-70AFS / 200-400VR on Lexar UDMA digital film.

What’s the Answer?

A couple of shots from our three hour tour last week. There’s just something about these tree weathering all the storms and still able to stand tall and enjoy the summer warmth that I like.

Now the crew from Base Camp last week might be asking things like: “Where do we drop the black point,” or “Which Nik filter did you use,” or “How much can you make from that photo and where?” All, very valid questions but to me, the answer is simply, I like the moment the photograph represents which for me, is priceless. That’s why I go click.

Photos captured by D3, 24-70AFS / 200-400VR on Lexar UDMA digital film.

Then came the last day

With the change in the weather this morning, I changed plans and headed to where I thought we’d have the best possible photo opps. Heck, it’s Friday the 13th.

So we headed to the sheep and hoped they would come when they should. We lucked out, they came down and it wasn’t just the ewe group but five rams, three with decent sized curls.

And while you might think all was copesetic, it was anything but a few times. The biggest ram chased off the younger ones a couple times with full blast head butts.

This is right after one of the head butts with the younger ram, I don’t know, saying it gives? I’d never seen behavior like this so not sure what’s going on. Glad I had the opportunity to see and photograph it.

After a marathon boardroom session, it was back out to wildlife photography and since it is my Base Camp, we went to one of my favorite places for the afternoon.

Potter Marsh despite the wind was as active as usual. The wind while buffeting our lenses pretty good, stopped the Arctic Terns dead in their tracks making capturing flight shots pretty darn easy.

This is why they hovered, they were coming in to the nest, bringing in nesting material and fish to the nest. it was great photography, great fun and in my mind, a great ending to our Alaska Base Camp. Want to thank Jorgen, Dave, Chris, Rob, Fredrik and Jarred for making it a great week!

Photos captured by D3, 600VR (Terns w/TC-17e) on Lexar UDMA digital film

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