Jun 12, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Put simply, it kicked my ass and I enjoyed every moment of it! The Long-tailed Weasel is not a critter you see everyday. While very common, they are very illusive, secretive and simply put, greased lightning! They do nothing slowly but what always seems like panic in motion. The photo above in all honesty really visually describes the life and times of a Long-tailed Weasel. And it’s cool!
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Finding one is only part of the HUGE challenge of photographing them. We were at our very special location when looking at a Mountain Cottontail, I saw this weasel pop out of nowhere behind it. We were just scouting for the moment so had no cameras, having just literally gotten out of our vehicles. Sharon and I both saw it at the same time and in jaw dropping stance, watched as the weasel went ballistic running over this fallen log. We watched for a few minutes and then it occurred to me that it wasn’t going anywhere. So we sent back to our vehicles to set up our gear. I few minutes later I came back with D4s / 800f5.6 on the Zenelli a top the Gitzo 5561SGT and shooting at eleven frames per second, captured the images above. The series of four demonstrates just how damn fast these suckers can be! It smoked my ass!!!!
This little devil ran, jumped, hoped, skipped, and flew around this log (the size of a huge couch) with such speed, keeping up with it to get glass on it was near impossible! It wouldn’t stop and to be totally honest with you, watching it was really more rewarding than any photograph I might have taken. Then it got to a point where being beaten by this little critter became personal and getting the photo to tell its story became important. My best guess was, there was some prey in the log and it was hauling ass around it trying to flush it out and capture it. It was simply just an amazing show!
We were really lucky. It stuck around for quite a while and it had some what of a typical path around the log. Only by prefocusing at a location it had come to before and keeping an eye in the viewfinder (and Sharon telling me where it was, she’s so good at that) was I able to get a few in focus clicks of this amazing predator. Oh, and its cute factor is off the chart which makes the panic to get the photo even greater. The encounter didn’t last that long but we treasure it so! Having anytime with a critter of this type and in performing such unique biology is a real treat and why we get out everyday. But after this show, I know exactly where the song came from, pop goes the weasel!
Jun 11, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Photographing ground birds can be a challenge at times. The reason being, they are on the ground. The natural debris can hide them to make the photo incredibly busy. And in the case of this California Quail, foraging around in a freshly mowed lawn just isn’t the best of worlds for the subject. This is when understanding basic biology can keep you waiting around to capture the better photograph.
What you can’t see in these frames is the female. The pair came walking down the lawn and we moved into place so if everything worked out, they would walk into the lens. This is because “stalking” ground birds tends to push them back into the cover where they find safety. In this case, the pair kept walking right down to us and but doing it on their terms, all was good and we didn’t matter. Now with the female in tow, the male was looking for other males that might challenge him for his mate. That sex thing which SO makes us photographer meld right into the background.
The other piece of basic biology you need with California Quail is the males constant need to get higher to look around. Normally, he’s looking for predators but in the spring, he’s looking for other males that might make a move for his mate. Shooting with the D4s / 800f5.6 on the Zenelli a top the Gitzo 5561SGT, we had stopped where there were a number of possible perches the male could hope up to. Now the boys with me heard me chant for the rock but it was only after the great light was on the rock did the male hope up there.
A quite often once on a perch where he can easily watch the female for a time, the male preens. It’s during this moment when on that perch all nice and T’d up that the common becomes uncommon and that’s what we’re after. We were standing on the bank of a creek so we were physically low which permitted using a background WAY in the distance providing the clean background. So combining camera gear, time, basic biology and a passion for the story and the photo is captured. Our entire encounter lasted perhaps fifteen minutes but man, did it produce. It is simply how Mother Nature when given the opportunity can entertain while sharing her glories!
Jun 10, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
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This past weekend during our Sierra Bird weekend, we took a little field trip to a very special location of ours. It has always produced, but you just never know what. We’ve been heading here for over 30yrs and like usual, we had a new and difference subject occupying a bunch of our time this trip. Sharon discovered a nesting pair of House Wrens that were just finishing their nest and seemed to have laid their first egg. The post your see in the photos is where the male would come over and over again to sing, broadcasting his territory and keep his better half interested. We spent over an hour with the male and it was just killer. You will notice a change in nearly every photograph and that’s from both the behavior and the light. There were thunder clouds forming and as they came and went, I would move around the perch to get the better light on both the subject and the background. How close were we able to get? I was shooting with the D4s / 800f5.6 on the Zenelli a top the Gitzo 5561SGT and we were at the minimum focusing distance of our lenses. The male could care less, he had just one thing on his mind and it’s the wildlife photographers best friend, sex! It was just great fun keeping up with him and looking to make the uncommon out of the common.
May 28, 2015 | Landscape Photography
One of the sweetest way to grab a viewer’s attention to our photograph is a kiss of light. Also known as dapple light, I offer up these two photos as examples of what I’m talking about. The top one is a favorite of our recent K&M Adventure to The Smokies. Both were takin on the Roaring Forks road where you drive for a forest just chuck full of this kind of light. But stopping at the right spot to make the shot takes a critical eye. Here’s some thoughts on what to look for.
These were shot with the D750 / 14-24AFS cause lots of detail while going wide was important to me. Taking that all in, you have to be careful and watch the “spots” of light in the viewfinder. The mind’s eye goes to light and bright. If you have more than one “spotlight” of light in this type of scene, they all need to lead the eye to one thing and not multiple. “The” spotlight of light needs to be what the mind’s eye goes to first and then, led through the rest of the frame and back again. This is where the critical eye is so important because often emotions grab as, as they should, but more dabble light confuses the eye and that’s not good for our photograph. Does this mean you should only have one spotlight of light? No! It means you have to have a critical eye and “feel” the light as much as measure it. They are special when you find them. Make them special in your photograph.
May 22, 2015 | Landscape Photography
One aspect of The Smokies I love this time of year is its green! The number of shades of green that carpet The Smokies mountains is so numerous, it takes the eyes miles and miles to see them all. That celebration of spring is an element I search for but on a smaller scale. There are many small roads and trails that take you into the forests and that’s where you can accomplish this.
Cruising with the D750 / 14-24AFS, I look for amphitheaters in the forest to visually talk about this explosion of spring. What do I mean by amphitheater? I want a curve to the trunks in the photo with no trunk dead center in the frame. This provides a visual depth and therefore an visual expanse to the grove and the green. The one addition to the photograph which you might think is unusual for me is the bright sky. It pulls the eye through the forest. Wanting a “bright” photo, a celebration of spring, I didn’t want a dark sky. It definitely limited the number of photos I took this morning but those I found, I really liked.
May 19, 2015 | Landscape Photography
Not that it’s just a Smokies thing, but in thinking about telling that story, I wanted blurred water. We all know the song, “Smoke on the Water.” If you’ve not been to the Smokies, you might not know that water is everywhere! It’s a prominent feature that truly helps define The Smokies as The Smokies, the water itself and its effect on all the foliage. So in photographing the water, I think in telling the story, The Smokies has to be in the photo, all of it.
So with that in mind, there is only one of these three images that to me, says “water in The Smokies.” While all three were shot in The Smokies, at the same locale at the same time, only one says Smokies. Now does that make a difference? No, not when it comes to taking purty pics. But to me in wanting to be a storyteller, it does. Two of the photos could have been shot anywhere and they say that visually.
The photos were taken simply with the Df / 14-24AFS / 70-180mic with no filters, just slow shutters speeds and something new. But the gear or technique isn’t what’s really important here. I feel passionately it’s the story that needs to be told. Cause blurry water is blurry water and can be shot anywhere and for the most part, look like its from anywhere. But once you complicate it by adding place, telling the story of where that water is, that’s when the photo comes to life. And as the week continued, we found better locations to accomplish this storytelling. Those really are the successes but I had to build to it. mtc
