Some might be very tempted to crop the begiggers out of this image. Some might wanna Photoshop a photograph into this image. That’s because it is less than good, it has issues. But that’s not what I want to talk about. There are moments we are so fortunate to witness and capture out in nature that goes beyond the parameters of good or bad that simply need to be shared. An American Kestral on the wing eating the beetle it just plucked off the ground is simply a cool moment. Yep, I would love it large in the frame, would have loved much, much better light but I wouldn’t change the gesture, the story for a heartbeat. And that’s why I’m sharing it. Share your image, tell your story about your subject as you can change the world with your photography!
Everyone who knows my beautiful bride knows just how impeccable she is with her grammar. So yesterday morning when I was sitting at my desk while she was out with Maggie and a text appeared on my phone from her, “Pilested … Wdoeker tree”, I knew she was excited. That’s because she was there twenty feet away watching our first Pileated Woodpecker that had landed on the woodpecker perch and was feeding. She said she could hear me running through the house and saw a flash (I guarantee not from my speed) of me going by with camera in hand. It was ten months in the making and I wanted to record the landing.
We have seen Pileateds fly overhead but they have never stopped on any trees on The Ranch. I have “planted” two dead trees on The Ranch just for them. One is the Woodpecker Perch that has a suet feeder and a much larger diameter snag I’m hoping a woodpecker, a Pileated, will use it for a nest. With the text, I grabbed the D6 / 180-400VR (which is always on my counter ready to shoot) and ran to the garage which has the perfect angle for the Woodpecker Perch. As I pointed the lens through the window, I was struck at the total luck that the light at this moment in time was perfect, perfect for the black / white / red, crow size woodpecker. I took a couple of horrible photos through the window just in case. I then walked over to the door and slowly opened it. It didn’t budge and twenty minutes later, 341 images were on the card. It was a great Monday for photographing a “Pilested … Wdoeker tree”.
The temperatures might be well below zero, the snow is falling and the wind is blowing and the Bison get up and shake it off like it is just another day. Yellowstone in winter is simply a wonderland, classic example of our wild heritage. Every where you look the beauty comes through in so many forms. It is, the classic example of the wild power.
Shortly after I built vs3.0 of our water feature at The Ranch, I planted the woodpecker perch. Many looking at it wonder why a ten-foot-tall, dead top of pine is planted in the ground four feet from the water feature basically in the middle of the property. If you’re not a backyard bird photographer, you would simply check it off as odd. But for you folks who follow my blog, it’s pretty much operation as normal for me. I’ve put up dead sticks for a long time for backyard bird photography. Well on New Year’s day with the nice light, I set up on the woodpecker perch to shoot for the first time.
Red-shafted Flicker captured by D6 / 800f5.6 AFS
Why did I wait so long? The woodpeckers, Red & Yellow-shafted Flickers, Hairy and Downy (along with magpies, nuthatches, and Clark Nutcrackers) have been coming to the perch regularly for about 45 days. Before that, it was pretty hit or miss. I really wanted the Downy, that was my target species. So I waited to set up on it once they became totally accustomed to the perch, me, and the activity at The Ranch. I didn’t want any negative responses. You might be asking what is making them land on the perch in the first place? On the other side of the perch is a suet cake, placed there as they will land as you see on the opposite side of the food. It was all planned for shooting in the afternoon light.
And the background so out of focus? I can shoot at f/22 and it will look just as out of focus because the background is over one hundred yards away. The placement of the woodpecker perch was first, close to living trees and shrubs and the water feature to make the birds feel safe. It was placed for the background I wanted. And most importantly, for the afternoon light. It was a really nice first time shooting the woodpecker perch the first day of the year!
It’s that time of year when falling snow can be incorporated in your background to help tell your story. Capturing it is pretty straight forward if you think about it like you would shooting burred water or a blurred plane prop. It’s all a matter of how fast the snow is falling vs. shutter speed. The faster the snow fall, the faster the shutter speed. The slower the snow fall, the slower the shutter speed. In this case, the snow was blowing pretty hard so my shutter speed was 1/100. You might have tried this photo but didn’t have the results you desired, what to check?
The first thing I would check is the background, is it dark? You need a background that is darker than the snow in order to see the snow. Gray and green are naturals. Next, did you use flash as I did here to bring out the color in your subject? If you did, was the power of the flash could be such that it was freezing the snowfall? In many ways, it’s a balancing act but with digital, if only take a couple of clicks to dial it all in and have a ton of fun!
When we look at critters, we often, at least I do, wonder why they have the coloration they do. Some, like the Rhino or elephant, don’t really need to blend so are just gray all over. The Polar Bear can blend when they are lying so they can catch their prey. Others like the Pronghorn especially when young need to totally blend in. But how does one blend in when they are partially orange and white? The answer is not always obvious.
Pronghorn captured by D6 / 180-400VR
In the late fall when winter’s first snows have fallen and the last of the falls grasses are still exposed, you can quickly see why the Pronghorn have adapted to their color scheme. The further away they are, the more they blend, and when your predators have a finite range they can see, then they have a chance at survival. Though we saw one Pronghorn taken down on our latest travels, the rest of the herd was gone like a shot and quickly blending in a mile off with their butts all forming the heart shape of alarm. Want to show this evolution in your photographs, you gotta first think about it and then find the opportunity where it appears. It’s an elegant way of telling their story visually, how they can blend.
