Jun 20, 2018 | Landscape Photography
It’s simply the most beautiful forest I’ve ever walked! We averaged about five miles a day in our hunt for Great Gray Owls walking the forest. Our walks the entire time were through the most gorgeous, sweeping landscape of Ponderosa Pines with spring grasses and wildflowers at their feet. While we never found the Great Grays, we were enveloped by over thirty species of wildflowers. Their color and smell amongst the pines and grasses were intoxicating and with all the birds singing made for a near heaven experience. Seriously, we all said we’d move there in a heartbeat, it was just that magnificent!
Those who know me know that no matter how gorgeous the wildflowers, I simply don’t put my butt in the air to photograph them. So you might be very surprised to see a blog post with wildflowers. Well, that’s because I didn’t have to bend over to take them! Shooting with the D850 / 8-15Fish, I simply folded out the monitor and shot! The 8-15Fish is so cool because it focuses closer than the 16Fish so all I had to do was move the rig close to the blossom, wait for the wind to settle down (the past I hate) and go click. I shot on CH and with the D850‘s Silent Shutter, blasted away letting “luck” capture the sharp image. The top image was shot at 8mm and the bottom at 15mm and I made that decision based on the blossoms. It was simply, spectacular!
Jun 13, 2018 | Landscape Photography
The Spouting Horn on Kauai is just one of those locations that in the late afternoon, you can’t but take a deep breath and relax! The view is spectacular so much so that even the evening rain shower makes you smile just that much more. Then there is the natural beauty of the coastline enhanced by the “breathing rock” that is the Spouting Horn. Even at low tides, you can hear it take a breath and let it out even if there is no spray. The warm, ocean air, the floating clouds, the gorgeous light, it’s just about as romantic a spot as you’re going to find. Then we interrupt this all by putting a camera to our eye. I say this because there is no emotion setting in the camera, romance slider in post. Argh!
What do I mean by that? When we put the cold-hearted bastard to our eye, we take all those emotional responses to Spouting Horn and make them mechanical. We have all the best of intentions wanting to preserve and share the moment, but we often fall short. For your consideration, I offer up these two photographs from my recent time at Spouting Horn. The top shot is looking west at Spouting Horn, the bottom photograph is looking south right at Spouting Horn. Which photo says, “I was here” and which says, “You SHOULD be here?” I know the answer for myself, but do you when you experience such a moment and put the cold-hearted bastard up to your eye? You might be saying, “The bottom photo has a rainbow, I want that photo.” But does the rainbow really make the photograph, a photograph? For me, the vertical photo has two halves, a top half with the rainbow and the bottom half, Spouting Horn. There is nothing visually tying the two together. So while both are photographs taken with the D850 / 24-70VR (shooting on CS to capture the burst of water), one is simply, I was here and one is, you should be here. So for me, it has to grab heartstrings for it to be a photograph.
Jun 12, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Red-tailed Tropicbird
captured by D5 / 300PF
I’m often asked which photographers have inspired me. Those who know me know I can’t remember a person’s name seconds after being told it. I can name all the critters of North America, but someone I just meet, their name is lost to me. And while I don’t recall names worth a hoot, I can remember all the photographs I’ve seen over the decades. One of the photos I saw when I first got into photography decades ago was of a Red-tailed Tropicbird. The way the light came through the wings, the crazy long, red tail and the “floating in air” look of its flight simply caught my imagination. It’s a photograph I’ve always wanted, a species I’ve wanted to experience. And forty years later, I meet my inspiration!
Red-tailed Tropicbird
captured by D5 / 300PF
The photograph I saw all those years ago is pretty much the top photo you see here. It was simply a tropicbird floating by. Getting that shot way back when would have been quite a feat with manual advance camera bodies and manual focus (and just 36 exposures!). Today, it’s actually a slam dunk! I simply put the D5 / 300PF up to my eye, panned and shot. Seriously, with the D5 set to Auto Area AF, Exp Comp 0 and on CH with the speed of the 300PF autofocus and extreme light-weight and sharpness, the only thing to worry about was the sunburn (I got toasted!)! So then getting “the” shot that made me go experience the Red-tailed Tropicbird was a easy peezy. But coming back with more was truly my goal.
Red-tailed Tropicbird
captured by D5 / 300PF
Once you’re on Kauai, finding either the White-tailed or Red-tailed Tropicbird is pretty simple. Getting close, really close to these species there is only one place to go, the Kīlauea Point NWR. This is flying bird Shang-gra-la! The tropicbirds nest here (they lay only 1 egg) which instantly means you’ll easily find them. With that challenge met, it’s then the challenge of capturing their story. Being a pelagic species which means they spend their life at sea on the wing making them great fliers. They eat fish specializing in eating flying fish. Then in telling their story, you can see that flight is a big part of that story.
Red-tailed Tropicbird
captured by D5 / 300PF
Watching them is what I did at first. Seeing patterns, watching routines and guessing at their meaning was a little time-consuming but important for being in the right place and the right time. For example, a group of 5 or 7 would launch into the sky, fly up and then fly backwards in what appeared to be an aerial courtship display of some sort. They would do this over and over and over again. Then they seemed to pair up and do flights together. All of this would happen in spurts of great activity and then none, craziness and then, snore. They would start their activity below the cliff out of sight and then would skyrocket with the wind up into site and above our heads to perform. It was great fun and a challenge to bring this story home.
Red-tailed Tropicbird
captured by D5 / 300PF
Then there was simply capturing their elegance of flight. I can’t emphasize enough the ease the D5 / 300PF brought to this especially when shooting directly overhead or when they screamed past us down the bluff. It was truly rewarding, romantic, fun, bird photography that we did for hours on end. The biggie for me though was to finally, after decades, bring back an image the inspired me so long ago to be a wildlife photographer. That leaves me now with just a few hundred images of others to chase because it is others images that inspire me!
Red-tailed Tropicbird
captured by D5 / 300PF
Jun 7, 2018 | Landscape Photography
After an afternoon looking for the rare forest endemic bird species of Kauai, we came back down from the mountains to spend some time in the gorgeous Waimea Canyon. There are a number of turnouts and overlooks in which to take in this incredible view and the one I select normally is dependant on the rainbow. That’s because, in the afternoon, there is usually at least one rainbow, if not more.
The gear part was a snap. The D850 with the 70-200f4 and 8-15Fish was all that was required. This permitted both the tight horizontal and vertical shot of the canyon and the rainbow. And with the huge vista, the 8-15Fish took that in oh so elequently. That took care of the arranging of elements, then there were just a few settings to finish it all off.
I shot in Vivid, underexposed by -1/3 stop and set the camera to Cloudy WB. That was it, easy peezy and the memory is saved to share with all. Cause this kind of natural beauty is meant to be shared with all!
Jun 6, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
Giant Frigatebird
captured by D5 / 300PF
We jetted from Florida and Photoshop World directly to Kauai for a Pacific paradise birding adventure. We really love Kauai having come here many times but this is the first with the express purpose of photographing birds. We started off with birds I’d seen before but not spent time photographing, they are grouped under the big heading of pelagic birds. That’s a term used for a group of birds that spend their life at sea except for nesting season. Amazing flyers, watching them catch and soar in the trade winds is a thing of beauty. That’s what I wanted to bring to my photographs.
Red-tailed Tropicbird
captured by D5 / 300PF
The birds dart about in the winds as they perform courtship to aerial chases with incredible speed and ease. There was only one option as far as I was concerned for gear, the D5 / 300PF with the D5 set to Auto Area AF. I started with the TC-14eIII because of the old adage, “Go out with your longest lens or come back short,” but it was too long as the birds were WAY too close for that much lens.
Laysan Albatross
captured by D5 / 300PF
The biggie to making the photos was the background. For example, didn’t want gray skies in the background. With the intermediate rain showers, the can be a challange. Next was the horizon line, you need to be sensitive to where it is in the frame and how prominent. Then if shooting down on the waves, the amount of placement of white when the subject is a white bird. Then there is the gesture of the birds themselves in flight and the ease and elegance that they fly. We were there shooting until the wind burn on our faces drove away. But we’ll be back because there is simply nothing like photographing birds in paradise!
May 23, 2018 | Wildlife Photography
American Black Bear
captured by D5 / 800mm
One of the great passages of spring is spring babies! Mother Nature knows how to celebrate when it brings us the kiddies to celebrate in our photographs! Yellowstone this past week was full of kids, especially with calf Wolf, Elk & Bison. But we had special moments with like Griz Cubs and others as well. When you are invited into the home of these critters and you can be a good guest and bring back the photographic memories, well then you simply count your blessing and share the stories!
Up by Tower were a Black Bear and her cub. We were told that there were three cubs, but we only saw and photographed the one. Now it was your basic Yellowstone Bear Jam scenario which can drive some mad, and ugly. We avoided that by simply standing further back and longer glass. Shooting with the D5 / 800mm and picking the spot I wanted to photograph the bears on my terms. Living literally with black bears, I had a good guess where they might go and what they might do. After waiting twenty minutes, the show began. The cub so full of life bounced of rock, tree, plant, mom and then rock and tree again. It simply brings tears of joy watching the spirit of spring.
The Badger was a real happy find, a den with what we were told four pups, We only saw two and the pup’s reaction to spring was much different from the bears. Still using the same technique of standing further away and shooting with the D5 / 800mm, we watched as the pups did their usual, try to get mom to wake up and play. Mom doesn’t do that but it doesn’t stop them from trying.
It’s so good for your soul, so good for your photography and is, well, just how we should celebrate Mother Nature everyday!
