May 11, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
I love Bison! It comes in part because of all the 1850 history I’ve read, I see Bison and my mind goes back in time when the west wasn’t won, a timeless landscape waiting to be discovered (the eeky part of history I try to ignore). Here’s a photo tip.
You might notice how in these top two images, the Bison seems to “pop.” This is a combo of using 600+1.7, shooting at f/6.7, getting down low, having the Bison on a ridge and the clouds in the background. I set up so I had all those things working for me. A recent question I’m getting alot is how to work in highnoon light. Here’s another example of that and this case, all that tan grass is bouncing light up into the dark Bison filling in some of the shadow.
And this photo? Oh, I posted it just because I love that face!
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e / 600VR (handheld) on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 11, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
I’m at one of my favorite places, the Black Hills in SD. I’ve been coming here for 24yrs and I just never get tired of the views, the critters and the tranquility. One of the great species here are the Pronghorn. I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds watching and photographing them. There is one very important secret to making the shot work that was past on to me by a dear friend so I’m going to pass it along to you.
It’s real simple. Look at the eye(s). What do you see?
You don’t see anything in the middle image, just a black hole. That big bulbous eye is the biggest dang reflector you’ve ever seen and when it isn’t reflecting a thing, the pronghorn looks as dead as dead can be. The bottom photo, it is obviously backlit. If that the case, then how come it’s not in shadow and more importantly, you can see into the eye. How come? The Suburban and gravel are bouncing light into the pronghorn. Use everything you’ve got to make the shot!
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR (handheld) on Lexar UDMA digital film
Apr 22, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
I love shorebirds and have traveled north (as in Alaska / Canada) to photograph them on their nesting grounds many times. That’s because I love seeing them in their breeding plumage. So we were photographing the clouds in the last posting when I turned and looked over in the river to see a bird silhouetted. I said, “Willet?” How could that be, in April, here? It wasn’t moving fast and I began to wonder if it got caught in the blizzard and blown to where it was now.
I burrowed Sharon’s binoculars and sure enough, it was not only a Willet, but one in breeding plumage! Well, had a heartbeat or two of hesitation, I went back to the truck and grabbed the 200-400 w/TC-17e and headed over to the river bank. It wasn’t a great photo opp with the backlighting but this was the only the 2nd time I’ve seen them in breeding plumage and first time to try to photograph them. So I went for it. As first, it hunkered down and then it perked up and decided to start foraging. I was crouching down, shooting handheld off one knee.
After a few minutes of foraging, it had walked right up to me. While not the greatest Willet photo I’ve ever taken, it is the first in breeding plumage and the first in the Eastern Sierra so I’m darn happy. After this, I scooted away and left it to its foraging. The light was just getting worse and there was no way I could improve it and I was supposed to be teaching landscape photography so off I went. What a cool treat though. Just goes to show you that you get out with your camera, something will appear.
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Apr 18, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
To be honest with you, I don’t even remember the last time I tried to photograph a soaring bird with the 600mm mounted to a tripod! I can tell you by my performance, it was a really long time ago. I was on the bend of the levee working the Ripairan Brush Rabbits with wildlife really just about everywhere going about their life as if I wasn’t there. The way I like it. I had a Coyote cruise right past me, never stopping or looking at me. I had a mink, my first wild one, jug past me as well. And overhead all morning were the raptors like this Swainson’s Hawk (listed species in CA).
Back to being rusty (putting it nicely). It’s not that I had a sharpness issue, panning the 600mm on the tripod even with the lens pointing to the sky wasn’t an issue, I’m not rusty there. Rather, it’s getting the subject in the viewfinder in the first place that I’m rusty! Panning at eyelevel is pretty simple but as soon as you point that lens skyward and you have to bend at the knees and careen your neck, life gets hard. Especially when you have to navigate the tripod legs. I missed a number of great opportunities until I finally got back in the flow of doing this. The worst thing was, I couldn’t raise the tripod like I would have wanted or really move much because I didn’t want to tip my hand to the bunnies that I was even there. I thought the raptors overhead (I had Red-tailed, Swainson’s, Blk-shdr Kit & Harriers) would have sent the bunnies looking for cover, but such was not the case. And when it comes to the final photo, I like the bottom photo much more then the top. Shooting straight up on a raptor, looks like a mobile you find in some nature store. There is no life to the flight, it’s just there. It’s the bottom photo I prefer where the bird has room to soar, the primaries have a bend to them from catching the wind and the head is cocked suggesting that flight is really easy. And before I head out with the rabbits again, I’ll be lookin for some way to practice my long lens / overhead technique. I hate missing photos because of pilot error!
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Apr 14, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
I stepped out the front door to see a shooting star streak by, I took that as a good omen. It was 04:30 when I pulled out of the drive and headed down the road. The wind was blowing pretty hard, which in the winter means a storm is coming but looking up, all I saw were stars. I headed north to a gorgeous sunrise over the Sierra crest. I made a turn west on Hwy 50 and headed over the mtns. I no sooner got west of Lake Tahoe and the rain started, and it poured! I was driving 396 miles and rain would definitely put a damper on my day.
The Riparian Brush Rabbit is a listed species I first photographed 20yrs ago when the world population was best guessed at a couple dozen. Way back then, I spent five days to get a couple clicks of one individual. It was a lot of time for the shot, but it turned out to be “the” shot for the species for a long time. Since then the same biologists I worked with back then have been working amazingly hard to help recover the species. I arrived on site just after noon today and was instantly in the researchers’ vehicle looking for rabbits. You see the winter has been a wet one here in CA and the rivers levels has raised to the point where the RBR habitat has flooded out in many regions and they’ve had to go by canoe and rescue rabbits that are up in the tops of trees trying to escape the flood. Last week 125 rabbits were rescued with 34 being found drowned. Yeah, the population has increased with the captive breeding program the biologists started a decade ago.
We cruised down the levy and much to my delight I saw over 30 RBR this afternoon! I’m not here to take just portraits of the RBR but since I had the opportunity this afternoon, I took advantage of it. The rain had stopped and when the sun came out the bunnies came out to warm up. They are brush rabbits so photographing them in the brush is an important part of the photograph. At the same time, getting a clean shot of the eye is a must and after that, it’s to taste to tell the story. You become an expert real quick of finding their runways, tunnels through the brush that you can shoot down. Then it’s a fine dance up, down, left, right to get the shot tuned, including needed elements and excluding the rest. Handholding is a must to have that kind of flexibility in framing. After that, it’s getting the right gesture in the rabbit, which includes eyes, jaw and ears. I like this one because the wabbit has attitude that I see as, “I’m not going to smile so take your damn shot and leave me alone.” We spent about 10min with it before we continued down the road on task. This is another long term project I’m very honored to be a part of, starting back in the days of film. Well, it’s time to hit the sack. I’ll be up again early tomorrow. Shhhhhh, be vewy, vewy quiet, we’re hunting wabbits.
Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Apr 12, 2011 | Wildlife Photography
It’s that time of year again when the snow disappears and spring brings a new beginning. Depending where you are, you might be seeing the birds just arriving back from migration, they might be just now courting or they might already be on eggs. Birds are such a killer way to celebrate spring, while you’re reading this we’re celebrating as I have for 24yrs, out on the lek with Greater Sage Grouse (it will be our 1st morning with them this season). While the portraits are very cool and an important part of the wildlife photography story, telling the whole story requires a little bit more biology, technology and time.
Be it Common Murres, Arctic Terns, Eared Grebe or a House Finch in your own backyard, they are make great subjects. Photographing nesting birds is a huge challenge and a great responsibility. I’m still of the opinion anyone can do it if they take great care, understand basic biology and start now when time is still in your favor. Where do you start? Well, there is a little read paper right hear on the site on photographing nesting birds that I personally think is a great place to start. But it’s not the end all!
For example, when you read that piece written a long time ago, you’ll notice technology has changed a lot. The biggest change for the 2011 season I’ll be making is employing the Pocket Wizard MiniTTl. One of the past issues has been having the flashes placement restricted by line of site. This can be a major problem when you have branches and the like between you and the flashes. Here’s the key to all of this, start now! So I’m testing the flashes with the Minis now but setting up the gear, finding obstructions and testing. You might not be at that place yet, you might be at the beginning. I highly recommend you read the paper here on the site on nesting birds and see if it even interests you first. If it does, you should then pick up a copy of Captured and give it a read. Now if you get through all of this and still are interested, give this video a watch. If you’ve made it this far, then get a pair of binoculars, get out and start looking. The rewards are huge IMHO but you pay the price with the investment in time. I’ve provided a the recipe, you’ve gotta do the baking but the cake when it comes out is oh, so schweet!
