Dec 4, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
It’s International Cheetah Day, might be a celebration not on your calendar. It’s sad that the world’s fastest land mammal is also Africa’s most endangered cat. When we were in Africa, we were afforded a short time with this amazing critter but never got to see it first hand run and reach its legendary 65mph speed to bring down prey.
And like so much of Africa’s, the world’s wildlife, the Cheetah is in trouble. You might want to find out a little more about this amazing adaptation to life on the plains. Here’s a good, simple page of neat trivia that might just reach out and grab you. If you have a basic “house cat” and you have the opportunity to watch a Cheetah in the wild, you will see a lot of similarities. In the photo above, this cub seemed quite mesmerized by its own tail for a short time. I was hard to shoot laughing to myself as it nearly went cross-eyed wondering where the tip of its tail would be next. Such critters and experiences we were so fortunate to inherent to enjoy, we have the responsibility to pass that on to those coming after us so they can experience the same relationship!
Dec 3, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Nature truly amazes me! Many times I ask, “What was the first individual who thought it would be a good idea too …” like in this instance, molt all my brown summer fur and turn all white for winter? It would be nice, really nice if I could say, molt all my grey hair and go back to brown hair but such is not the case. The Arctic Fox is just one of many small mammals that literally sheds one color coat for another twice a year. Some birds like Ptmarigan do this too and for them it’s a simple strategy to keep from being eaten but there is nothing that is out to eat an Arctic Fox. Why then do they switch?
Living in an environment that is 24/7 dark for forty days and with temps well below zero, keeping a dark coat to absorb heat from the sun doesn’t work. You only get a hint of why they turn white and develop that thick coat when you watch them move about. They often shadow the Polar Bears like this white individual here was doing. And while they are a shadow, they are very hard to see as they blend in with their world so bloody well. When they are on the prowl to catch prey, if they still wore their summer grey coat against the white snow, their prey would easily see them. Turn white and they blend in, blend in so incredibly well they can more easily sneak up on their prey. So after watching this behavior for days and day, you just gotta scratch your head and wonder, who was the first individual who decided turning white would be beneficial and then indeed, turned white and made the switch to winter.
Nov 30, 2015 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
Kodachrome Basin which is now a state park is a pretty cool unique little piece of Utah most never visit. That’s because it’s overshadowed almost literally by Bryce. You can seen Kodachrome Basin from Bryce and visa versa. While it’s not all red rock, it has some really cool shapes and forms that makes photography really fun. Kodachrome Basin requires a couple of things in finding the photographs, walking and imagination. It’s not a place where the photographs are real obvious, it takes a little of exploration.
Kodachrome Basin exploration is a combination of feet and focal length. These photos were taken with the Df / 80-400, using longer to optically extract a select group of elements to tell the story. The top frame is a massive formation that against the bald sky is so striking, I tend to shoot lots of the same thing cause I’m so taken with it. The bottom shot is self evident, the moon sucked me in. Running back and forth to capture the rising moon, to “unrise” it and then shoot it, move and “unrise” it to get the shot took the better part of an hour. Combined with that was doing handheld double exposure to to get sharp rocks and a sharp moon. Been easier if I had just grabbed the tripod but when I set out to shoot sunset, the moon wasn’t on my mind. What was though was the B&W aspect of the photos. The arrangement of elements was based on B&W. They were finished as mentioned here so I could target the rock and sky differently creating the tones you see. And the whole time, I tend to chuckle to myself because of the irony. It’s almost sacrilege, shooting Kodachrome Basin in B&W.
Nov 27, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
With winter in the Sierras comes cold temps and with a long lens, you can stay inside and warm while shooting the great outdoors. That’s what I did yesterday in my never ending quest to find the uncommmon in the common. Yesterday, Sharon called out that the “love doves” as we call our pair of Morning Doves were in tree 4. So I stopped making scratch waffles and headed to the D4s / 800mm to shoot out the window. Because of the cold temps, 7 degrees, the doves were perched trying to stay warm. The pattern in the wing of the one above really caught my attention, its near circular shape is pretty uncommon cause from it being puffed up. Not everyone loves the cold like I do, that I know. But when you can make these simple kinda clicks, I’m shooting in 7 degrees and loving it!
Nov 25, 2015 | B&W Photography, WRP Ed Zone
John Paul spelled out the digital darkroom B&W options brilliantly here, wish I’d thought of doing it! Many including myself look for the best way to convert our images to B&W and as JP points out, there is no one way since B&W is such a romantic medium. We need to mix in the digital darkroom as per the heart! With that said, he’s compiled a comprehensive list and IMHO is spot on. And like JP, my preferred method for B&W conversion for some time now has been as he states:
The only thing I add to this is at times is Nik’s Pro Contrast at the start of the process and then at the end of the process Levels. The key to the methodology described above is its Quality and Flexibility and Speed. And this is important when a clean Black and a clean White is essential along with the mixing of the heart in the final B&W image
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What you see above are some of the possibilities by just cycling through the drop down menu in the B&W Adjustment Layer. In order you see above I have applied: Original, Blue, My Finished B&W version, Green, Infrared, Max Black, Neutral Density, Red and Yellow. Below is a screen grab of the Layers for the B&W version below, the one I like the best for this image (rarely is any two images have the same mix). How do YOU learn what works best for YOUR B&W? Go through the list JP was so wise to generate, using all those methods on at least three different images. Save ALL those files and then print them all out. That is what I did, I have a good feeling that’s what JP did and it’s what you should do. Oh, what about those B&W plugins? You might have noticed they aren’t advancing but digital is. To me, that’s a huge hint to master what we’ve got and what we know is advancing, Photoshop! Have fun and enjoy the very romantic realm of B&W!
Nov 24, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
The San Joaquin Kit Fox, one of the first critters to be listed as endangered in the US has new troubles. Mange, a disease many pet owners are aware of started to appear in the SJKF back in 2013. About 110 have now been found but there is surely more as many succumb to this disease and die a miserable death alone in their den. I’m bringing this to your attention because you can help! Read his piece and if you see what you think might be a SJKF in trouble, make the call. And you can learn a lot more about this and our environment here. It might just save its life! Thanks.
