Jul 20, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Elegant Trogon
captured by D5 / 800mm
One of the biggest challenges in photography is measuring the success of our photographs both technically and most importantly, aesthetically. What I mean by that is, the vast majority of what we do there is no scale, an accepted public measure that we can quickly, easily and accurately measure the quality of our success. It’s all rather subjective. Those who live in the industry have such a scale but in many ways, this is a secret measure that’s summed up very simply in a check paying one for their efforts. But even in the days of film with it ridgedality that was relatively cut and dry this measure of success, helping a new photographer understanding what was sharp while looking through a loop on a light table was a helluva challenge. I by no means have any intent to suggest or force my scale of quality on anyone but rather, simply pass along just two things that my forty years of working with photobuyers has instilled in me that I personally attribute to my still making a living with my images.
Back in the day of steam-powered cameras, we shot on this thing called film … ground up cow hooves with this thin layer of chemicals that got really excited when light struck it just right. In my case, it was 35mm in size being finally presented to the photobuyer encased in this circle of cardboard. There was just enough room on this cardboard to stamp your copyright and address. And you’d bundled up your precious gems up 20 to a page and sent them off with your prayers to the photo buyer hoping in return to get a nice check. You would use gloves and keemacs in prepping your slides, stamping them with care so the presentation was a perfect as you could make it. The last thing you would do would put silver tape on the cardboard mounts to suggest that the image should be cropped, it was dependent on you and assumed by the photobuyer that what they say within that cardboard frame was the complete visual story as you wanted to tell it. Not that at times your photo might not have been cropped in production to fit a cover or a layout. But you’re delivering a product to a client, what they saw in that cardboard frame was the final photo. At the same time what was contained within that cardboard frame was exposed to have the information needed in the entire range of the story correctly. This could only happen when you did it when you went click in the camera. There was no way of recovery after that fact.
Replacing today the finality of slide film and the words of wisdom of the photobuyer is digital and the internet. Where before you HAD to know when you went click you had the picture has been replaced often with learning how you can recover it in post. Where you have the professional helping you learn if your photograph is telling a story are simply Likes. Likes from others often is a befuddlement as to a measure of success or not. There are no true words of advice here, there is no technical help or words of wisdom other then to suggest that our measure of success must be higher if we are to move photography as a whole to a higher plane. A plane were rather than tearing down one’s photo, we use measures as a place to help each other improve where the technical is secondary and not a primary tool to measure with. It’s only then that photography can truly measure up to its true calling, telling the stories of this marvelous world we are all so fortunate to witness with other less fortunate. To enlighten all to a better plane. I would simply like to see us moving the quality slider moved forward!
Jul 12, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Immature Black-chinned Hummer
captured by D5 / 180-400VR 2x SB-5000
Yep, I’ve been totally ignoring the blog the last few days, that’s because I am enjoying the best success rate I’ve ever experienced photographing flying hummers. This rig simply kicks ass ….
D5
180-400VR
SB-5000 2x
SD-9 2x
Impact Quikbox Micro
So why am I posting a perched hummer shot? Because I started a series of images of elegant perched hummer portraits (and lots of slo-mo hummer in flight video). Still taken with the same rig above, just fine-tuning all the elements especially the light. This is an immature Black-chinned Hummer that was waiting in queue for its turn at the feeder. mtc
Jul 9, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Magnificent Hummingbird
captured by D5 / 180-400VR2 2x SB-5000
Yep, Mr. Wonderful is still here and today he really was a ham! The hummers in Madera Canyon are really spectacular and photographing them at Santa Rita Lodge is just darn heaven! We back again this year with a better rig that is making the photography about as simple as it can be. I’ll post a BTS of the rig later, but it consists of:
D5
180-400VR
SB-5000 2x
SD-9 2x
Impact Quikbox Micro
What you see here is out of the camera, slam dung easy pizzy. Sorry for short post but heading back out with the hummers before the skies open up big time!
Jul 3, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
I posted a portfolio of some of my personal favorite images from our Kauai Adventure a few weeks back. Enjoy!
Jun 27, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
I was kinda getting into desperate mode! It was shaping up to be another trip looking for certain species and because they are simply disappearing, vanished, gone from the planet, I was too late, again! The last couple of years I’ve been trying to photograph species that when I first started out in the 70’s I couldn’t because I didn’t have the means let alone the skill to go get the photograph. The last couple of years, I feel I’m getting more and more desperate as I make the journey only to find all too often, I’m too late! So it was on Kauai a few weeks back when I was laser beam focused on photographing the few remaining endangered bird species left on the island. By day three, we’d struck out and I was feeling pretty low. Our destruction of our wild heritage has been pretty thorough in the last forty years! After a frustrating morning at the top of Waimea Canyon looking a couple of endemic, endangered forest bird species with really no luck, I decided on a hail marry and head to a pond that looks like a bomb had gone off in the worst of light. There, we finally found a couple of endangered Hawiaan Stilts. Also, there was a State Wildlife office, a really nice guy. He told us to come back at sunset as many birds fly in to roost. We went on to successfully and safely photograph the Stilt (great group putting up with my hypersensitive nature with endangered critters) in that hard light and then went off to dinner. At dinner, I decided to return to the ponds to see the “fly-in.”
We arrived back at the pond with just a Stilt or two in sight, nothing else. With my luck that week and in the past year, I didn’t really hold out much hope. So as we waited out the setting sun for better light, we stood by the van waiting. Then as the light started to get nice we ventured out along the dike to see if we could as a group get close to the foraging Stilt. You gotta remember that my motto has been as always will be, No Photograph is Worth Sacrificing the Welfare of the Subject. And with all the grievous things I’d seen in the past month by photographers in the name of getting a photo, there was no way we were going to be part of that problem (which is freakin huge!). So we slowly ever so slowly walked out towards the Stilt. I choose that one subject because of a couple of factors. The first and most overriding which will make no sense is my “gut” feeling. Something told me to head that way. At the same time, if there was to be a fly-in, the birds would be landing INTO the wind. With the direction of the wind and the sun being on our backs heading to that one Stilt, all that added up to head in that direction. It took at least fifteen minutes to walk those fifty some yards but when we arrived where I wanted to be, the Stilt was still there feeding. Then its mate called from another pond and up it flew and the two of them went off together to a pond quite a ways from us to take care of their young. There we stood with glass on nothing! In my mind, all I could say was, “Not again!” We were left with no subject.
We heard them call at first so we scanned the sky and there was a small flock of a half dozen endangered Nēnē (Hawaiian Goose) flying by. Flying by! Then we watched as the small flock made a big turn and started to dump air from their wings. They were coming in for a landing! At first, they looked like they were going to land in an adjacent pond, not at the one we were standing at. I told everyone to freeze, lenses, hands, feet, freeze! We were after all five shooters with big glass standing out in the middle of nowhere in a pond with no cover. It’s not like we were hiding by any means. The Nēnē made a slight flight adjustment and within seconds made a splashdown so close to us that at first, I couldn’t focus on them! The last light of the day was fading so the ISO was cranked up to ISO400 (only way to freeze the motion) and exp comp set to -1. I was shooting with the D5 / 800mm and they were so large in the viewfinder I thought I had my 1.4x attached so went to take it off only to find, it wasn’t attached. Then for twenty minutes, we stood there photographing what to all of us turned out to be a very emotionally and photographically rewarding time with, geese. They were on the most perfect spot with those tiny white flowers, the light just kissing their killer colors of their plumage with a perfect background. And the Nēnē went on as if we weren’t even there! Perfect! Then it got too dark to shoot so we walked out as slowly and carefully as we entered so not disturbing the Nēnē. We were guests in THEIR home! To this day, every one of us in that group talks very fondly of that time with the Nēnē, Javier coming away with the best photo telling the story of our special time with this critter. But that’s really not what is important to me. What is that they all came away with a deeper appreciation of their own skills, photographs and most importantly of their wild heritage, especially the Nēnē.
Jun 26, 2018 | Landscape Photography
On 1 June, a lightning strike hit Lion Point in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. It was discovered on the 11th and by 18th was a slow, smoldering wildfire trying to burn its way through the thick pine needle carpet. There is just enough fire to create the thick smoke blanketing our area. With the strike helicopters flying over the house constantly, we decided to head up to the crest to look at it for ourselves since it’s only 9 miles from the house (town and home safe at this time).
Being me, I, of course, went up with the D5 / 180-400VR with my thought being I’d photograph the helos going overhead. As it turned out, the smoke as the sun went down intrigued me more. Here’s what we saw.
[envira-gallery id=”47997″]
As of now, the fire has grown to over 2400 acres, it was just 10 acres when I took these photos.
