Story Behind San Joaquin Kit Fox photo

Apr 7, 2012 | Wildlife Photography

I was pleased to receive so many requests for the story behind this photo I posted yesterday. The San Joaquin Kit Fox (SJKF) is an endangered critter that has lost about 92% of its historic range. The city of Bakersfield is ground zero for the “urban” population of the SJKF where while it seems backwards, the SJKF is “thriving.” The biologists I’m so fortunate to work with have worked with both the wild and urban population for decades and this past week, I was with Torey who is working on her masters looking at an natal dening dynamics. She monitors a number of natal dens (natal means there are pups) at night right after sunset when the height of activity with pups tends to be. That’s why I was there, this being my second year to work with Torey and her project. Those who came to my Wildlife Photography class at Photoshop World saw video from last year’s field work.

This den site is on the Cal State Bakersfield campus where I’ve been photographing kit fox since 1988. The urban kit fox specializes in eating human food, trash, and they are very good at it. In fact, a project a few years ago looking at isotopes found no difference in diet from kit fox and humans. The story behind this den is it is very special, being the natal den for two different age class of pups, pups from two different moms. It was important to me to document this and along with the data Torey is collecting, can be used to help the foxes in the future.

I shot last season with the D3s which did an OK job. It’s 720p video was OK though it did not do a great job with the WB of the funky night lights. When it comes to AF, that didn’t work at all for me at night so that was a challenge since we are working in the dark. The D4 on the other hand did an amazing job IMHO! I knew from past experience that is my shutter speed were to get below 1/100, I would not have sharp stills of the pups. They are simply balls of activity! I had used the Auto ISO in the video mode but hadn’t tested nor trusted the Auto ISO for stills. Now I’m not a “raise the ISO” kinda of shooter, I’ve always worked at either ISO 100 or 200. But I needed to get the photos and this was the tool available to me. So when the female first appeared and was running over to the den, the light was already nearly gone and I set the ISO to 800 to maintain the 1/100 speed. Within a matter of moments the light dipped more so I raised the ISO to 1600. I’m shooting wide open not only because of the low light but to minimize the DOF, the brown line in the foreground is one of the den entrances.

I’m sitting out in the open in my kit fox chair, the same chair I’ve been using since ’88 for just photographing kit fox. On my Gitzo 5561 is the 600VR w/TC-17e attached to the D4. When the vixen came to the den, it was killer to just lay down the hammer and rip the files, tracking her the entire route coming across the lawn. Having basically an endless buffer just simply rocks! That’s one aspect of the D4 I thoroughly can’t live without already. Once she checks all the den entrances, the signal is given and the pups emerge. She nurses for a heartbeat and then starts pacing, looking for the male’s arrival. During this time the light fades to night and all the pups, five of them, emerge to play and wait for the male and dinner. Once the sun is gone, I switch to video mode, shooting 1080p30.The TC-17e is removed at this point. I’m manually focusing using the LCD to do so for most of the action. When I can, I do put the AF sensor on still fox and hit the AF-ON button which, even working in total darkness, locks right on. The D4 is now in Auto ISO since it’s shooting video and is up to 12800. 12800! The first time I saw that number on the LCD I says to myself, “can this even be useable, I have nothing to loose!” But once I looked at the resulting video, I was blown away. And that’s the simple story behind the photo.

In the Bag
• D4
• 600VR
• TC-17E II
• Lexar 64GB 1000x UDMA
• Gitzo 5561SGT

“I Stare at Dirt!”

Apr 6, 2012 | Wildlife Photography

The cell buzzes and I see my sweet bride is calling. I’m just sitting in the truck with the camera sitting across my lap so I answer. “Whatja doin” she asks? “What I always do, I stare at dirt” I reply. She’s says with a smile in her voice, “And you do it better then anyone else!”

I wish when I started working with the endangered San Joaquin Kit Fox back (one of the 1st species to be listed as endangered back in ’64) in ’87, I kept records of all the months I just started at dirt in anticipation of a fox emerging from a den only to see dirt the whole time. Seriously, I have spent an entire day staring at dirt through the lens looking for activity only to see at most, an ant or fly. It just goes with the game, just because I show up doesn’t mean mother nature will. And you might think I’d learn and perhaps stop or do it better but neither is the case. I am working with the best biologists on the planet and even though some of the dens have collared animals and we know that animal is in that den, it still doesn’t mean when you have light, they will emerge. The Kit Fox is a “nocturnal” animal by nature but it does have some daytime activity. That’s what I count on, that “some” as I stare at dirt.

I got home at 02:00 today after another great week working with my friends, both biologists and kit fox at five different den sites. Two of those sites, I never saw a fox. At one, the photo you see above, that’s the only click I made after a couple of days at the den. One other, I only shot video at night under funky lights and the other, well on the very last day at the very last minute, I was blessed with some great biology in the last glow of light of the day. To me, that is an amazing week of success and that’s because I have come back from a week and all I have are shots of dirt!

I am always very appreciative of folk’s praise when they give me grandiose titles as a wildlife photographer. But I’ve seen images from “weekend warriors” that are much more spectacular then what I’ve captured in my career. What I am probably the best at though is staring at dirt. I’m a long haul, project wildlife photographer not going after the “best” shot but the “best biological” shot that not only tells a story about the critter but answers questions about its biology to move preservation forward. There is a big difference between the two “bests” in my book. And to me part of that is ego and commitment driven. While a “best” photo lives a glamorous life for a short time being heralded as the best, sadly they are forgotten in as short period. On the other hand, “best biological” gets nearly no notoriety but the images lives on for a very long time in science. To me, that’s much more a valid goal for my images.

The D4 was important to me to obtain because of digital as a tool. The D1 besides opening the digital world to my photography (and for many of you as well), captured a photo of the kit fox that went around the world hours after being taken that made an impact. I foresaw the D4 with its high ISO video as well as still abilities able to do the same thing for this same species, one that is very much imperil. All I had to do was get the two together, the D4 and the kit fox which required me to perform my specialty with flawless professionalism, stare at dirt. And that last evening in that last moment of light with the camera ISO set at 1600, something I never did in the past, I made the shots that are in the process of being written up as I type because once again, biology and technology came together for a moment to record while not earth shattering and nothing you’ll see on the evening news, history. You see a hint of that in the photo right above, not even 12hrs old by now. There is no pay, no assignment, no fanfare just the simple reward that applying a craft with passion, a photo can make a difference in the grand scheme of things. All of this doing what Sharon says I’m the best at, I stare at dirt!