Feb 4, 2010 | Wildlife Photography
I had up until yesterday morning photographed all but one of the Sandhill Cranes species and subspecies in North America. I started with the intention of photographing White Pelicans but as the day’s posting unfolds, you’ll see that’s the one bird species I didn’t shoot. RC has this really neat group of photographic friends that have been kind enough to include me in their merry band of adventures and the treat this morning was just killer because I was able to photograph the FL Sandhill Crane.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9603.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
This is a Federally listed Threatened species but you wouldn’t know it here in FL. There are communities in FL that have signs saying things like “Crane Crossing” because the Sandhill are living right amongst the homes.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9562.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
But this morning we found a band of them where they should be, in the open marsh on the edge of a swamp forest. It was really cool to come around the corner and hear the pairs calling.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP9715.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
This one male has on helluva red crown. My lens was stuck on him as he moved around. We had a heavy, dark overcast so there was no light to bring the eye to him but that red, well, as you can see you can’t but help zero in on that color. Damn, what a great opportunity, what a moment!
Photo captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 3, 2010 | Wildlife Photography
The Rocky Mtn Bighorn Sheep of Yellowstone were very, very good to me this year, any we’re only one month into the year! They really aren’t that difficult to find, they are right on the road beyond the north entrance of Yellowstone. That’s when they are down because much of the time they are just high enough to easily hide in the crevasses of the cliffs. This means you’ve got to be lucky or put in your time; we were lucky and put in our time. As I mentioned before, I have a particular image I want so worked toward that, but this is as close as I got to it this winter.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5261.swf, 465, 600 [/swf]
Not being totally successful just means I keep working on it. The key is finding a location where the ram would be physically eyelevel to me and that’s the challenge. Sheep prefer being above everything which puts their strength in their favor when it comes to predator avoidance. That’s one of the great things about the north entrance and why I’ll have to hit the road and wait more to make the shot.
In the meantime, here are some of my favorite images from the weeks. I enjoy these the most because of the habitat in the shot, the light, posture and in some cases, knowing the story behind the images. I hope they bring a smile to your face.
click here to open Gallery
Feb 1, 2010 | Wildlife Photography
I hope you had a great weekend, I sure did. I’m down in FL putting the finishing touches to the book layout. Of course I brought the camera and with my good friend RC now feeling like a wildlife photographer, we had to head out and shoot. Gathering up a couple of friends, Mike, Jim & Tony, the five of us headed out to a Bald Eagle nest Mike had found. While we started nice and early, the storms hadn’t completely blown out leaving behind their dark gray skies so like any good band of wildlife photographers under such conditions, we got breakfast.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5298.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
The 1st rule of bird photography is to not photograph flying birds against gray skies. Why? Well just look at this photo, kind of a exposure mud. You might also look at the photo itself. The female coming in is a bit small in the frame and the nest support tree, a bit massive and overpowering. Those things not withstanding, we persevered on.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5326.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Now I really love this shot but the small size on the blog just doesn’t work. But that itty, piddy head sticking up is one of the two chicks in the nest. Looks a little bewildered if you ask me.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5335.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Then it got real exciting, just for a heartbeat.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5337.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5338.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5341.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
It was hard to concentrate on the incoming male with RC and all his excitement over the opportunity, that and laughing as he made fun of himself and his skill set. Hell, it was his second time behind a 500mm shooting wildlife, Bald Eagle in flight no less, so I thought he was doing great but still funnier then hell. And then after all this excitement, back to gray skies and this.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5381.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
That’s how wildlife photography often goes, a day of “boredom” for a heartbeat of panic. The total time spent at the nest, about four hours. Number of frames taken during that time? Me personally, 121. It was totally worth every minute. If you’re wondering if you can do it, here’s a little test. I put together a little video. The sound has been removed, all the perches and nest are swaying in the wind which might make you sea sick and if you can watch the video in its entirety, you might have what it makes to be a wildlife photographer.
01.01.2013 Pages are in the process of being updated. In the meantime you can watch our videos on our YouTube Channel as well as all Videos are available on iTunes as Podcasts!
Now I had a GREAT morning with the guys and the nest and wouldn’t have even passed it up. I hope you not only could as well, but have a similar opportunity in the near future!
Photos captured by D3s, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 1, 2010 | Wildlife Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5337.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Photo captured by D3s, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jan 28, 2010 | Wildlife Photography
When I blogged about my minor discovery of how Vivid in Picture Control helped with contrast in a flat lighting situation, all sorts of emails, tweets and wallpostings came in. Then when I blogged about Exp Comp, even more showed up. Understandably, there is a lot of confusion in these regards stemming I think from a “Post Fix Generation” and general lack of understanding light. If you don’t understand light, you’re behind the eight ball at the camera and in post since light is what photography is all about.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp4689.swf, 465, 600 [/swf]
The blog and it’s limited space only affords me so much in the way of help, but here’s something that I hope you can easily see on your monitor and it has to do with light and back engineering images to learn from them. When shooting in snow, as I’ve written about in the last few weeks, you have this magical, giant white reflector that bounces light everywhere. That’s if, you have light to bounce. Looking at the Bison photo above, you can see with the gorgeous filtered light the Bison’s great brown coat. To me, this is near perfect Bison light because you can see so many shades of brown. And with the white nearly a perfect white value, the exposure is about as good as it gets, technically.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp8735.swf,465, 600 [/swf]
Now look at this photo of a Bison, one from the series I posted from Vivid. Do you see any brown on the Bison? Do you see any white in the snow? No, the Bison is black and the snow is gray which indicates the total lack of light. The lesson photographers need to grasp. While both images were shot in overcast light, a must for Bison, the top photo is a very slight overcast and the bottom one, it’s snowing dood, there ain’t no light value sneaking in. The top image, the snow has light to bounce, the bottom image, the snow if yuck. In that scenario, the image will be dark because there is NO light. And light is everything!
Could either image be brightened up? You bet, you could use Exp Comp (if you’re shooting in Manual, this won’t work. But that begs the question, why are you shooting like it’s the ’60s?). Exp Comp on the Plus side would brighten up the scene. Should you do that? That’s your call, it’s YOUR photograph and YOUR story to tell. Do you need to technically? Who the %^#*# cares about technical, I sure don’t! Exposure = Emotion, plain and simple. You dial in Exp Comp to express the emotion you feel and want to communicate! And that’s the real problem for most photographers, they just don’t understand how to connect the emotion they feel looking through the viewfinder to the image they share.
Hummm…someone should write a book about that :)
Photo captured by D3s, 200-400VR (handheld) / D3x, 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jan 28, 2010 | Wildlife Photography
Have you done much Coyote photography? If you have and spent time with them in a forested area, you know that if there is a log, a Coyote will most often jump up on it. The problem is at least for me is even though you know that, I don’t always prepare for it. I’m just slow sometimes, the obvious just ain’t obvious. Well, this time I thought about it.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp9206.swf, 585, 444 [/swf]
Coyotes in winter in the mountains are just gorgeous animals. Their thick coat often leads folks to believe they are wolves. They are very much opportunistic hunters eating almost anything they can kind. And they are expert mousers, using their keen sense of hearing to listen the mouse’s movement under the snow. There are lots of shot of them in mid air, bouncing on a mouse they’ve been listening to and waiting until the right moment to bounce. That does take energy and that requires calories. That, along with it is easier for mice and voles to follow air pocket along fallen logs in snow is why they jump up on logs. Now, if I can just remember that when it comes time to shoot!
Photo captured by D3s, 200-400VR (handheld) on Lexar UDAM digital film
