Oct 29, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
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Those racks, it’s what fall is all about when you’re a wildlife photographer! Just as trophy hunters look for the biggest set, so do wildlife photographers. But how do you make them look as big if not bigger in your photo than they are in the wild? This 50-52″ rack isn’t a huge one but it is respectable. The first thing in making the rack appear large in the frame is to shoot UP on the subject. Not eye level, not down, but an upward angle is a must in making the antlers appear large. This is just a basic human response to shooting up. It appears more masculine, more majestic and for a bull Moose, bigger! Next is the lens you shoot with. Longer is not always the best choice. In this case, I’m shooting with the 200-400VR2 (with D4s) because I love how 400mm communicates the strength of the animal. My preferred focal length is 300mm but getting that opportunity is a challenge. Lastly, it’s the pose the bull Moose takes, or you capture.
Personally, the pose you see right above is my favorite way of making the rack appear it’s largest. The way antlers grow, there is a large space between the head and the palm of the antler. That space visually makes the rack appear smaller in a photo when shooting straight on since you have no other visual reference as to size. You don’t know how great that space is in the photo like you do when you’re there in person being starred at by this magnificent critter. So when you have a side profile, that space between the head and palms is smaller and so making the rack looking larger. At the same time, minimizing how much of the Bull’s body you see makes a difference as well. Moose are freakin big and that mass dwarfs the size of their rack in the photo. So cropping into the body or hiding part of it adds to the illusion of massive antlers. Understand that without that rack, it’s just a cow Moose and most don’t want to photograph a cow. They want a Bull and Bulls with big racks simply grab the viewers attention. So when you find it, keep in mind that you photograph has to scream giant rack just like the impression it left when you saw it in person.
Oh … and the post title? You can’t imagine all the search engines that grab that title and all the disappointed folks who click on it thinking they’re going to get a helluva show. I gotta get a LOL whenever I can :-)
Oct 21, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Moose are a funny critter (you can associate that with the 2 & 4 legged ones). I’ve always found their biology quite fascinating. For example, them long legs, they’re for getting through the deep brush and snow they live in. They have an amazing high step but when running from a predator, it turns into this fast yet funny shuffle. Then there are those big racks, the antlers that us photographers love to photograph. As you can see in these 2-3yr olds, they ain’t got them yet but that doesn’t prevent them from playing with them.
They do serve a purpose but it’s not exactly what you might think. At this stage of life, they are just getting use to them being there. They do shed them in January after just a couple of months of wearing them and a short period of really putting them to use. At this age, these bulls will just have pushing fun, not real battles because they are not ready to become part of the mating pool. They have to figure out how to turn their head to first make a push against their opponent and then figure out how to turn their head to block a thrust. Since there are no nerves or muscles in the antlers, it’s all from the head. It’s a skill to say the least they have a short time to develop.
And believe it or not, that’s not what turns the ladies on! It’s not the battling, it’s the noise but more about that in another post. Getting the shot requires that first, you get to where they are at and that means hiking. Next is the right time of year and that depends on the region but fall, October, is the general time. Then is finding the action and that requires more than one moose. And finally, the gear. Personally, for battles the further away I can be the better so they can do their thing unimpeded. I shot this with the D4s / 200-400VR2 with TC-14eIII which put me about 40-60 yards away from the action. The final outcome of this pushing match? They headed for the hills when the big boys showed up so these youngsters know their place. Now in 3-4yrs, these kids will be the big boys and then we’ll really know how well they learned.
Oct 14, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
It is obvious, I really enjoy spending time with Moose, especially those in Alaska. Being the biggest of our four subspecies, watching them going about daily life is fascinating. Many forget they are just an over grown deer but those long legs and nose are highly specialized for the world they live in. All you have to do is walk literally in their hooves and you quickly appreciate just how well adapted those long legs are to the Alaska world they call home. This bull, he really intrigued me because he has an infliction which is not really that uncommon and that makes photographing this common Moose, uncommon.
If you look closely at his antlers, you’ll see they look like weathered wood and in some spots, he still has his velvet. CWD affects very few and is only the second time I’ve seen it all these years which is why I focused in on this bull for five hours. I shot with the D4s / 200-400VR2 with the TC-14eIII at times depending on where he was and what he was doing. Where I stood in relation to the bull all depended on the light since the story is the disease. My goal was to show off that CWD by using the light to bring to life the “deformity.” Now this particular bull we only saw this one afternoon, never saw again during the week. That’s in part because he is not part of the breeding pool. Those antlers couldn’t withstand the impacts of the rut. Will he be around next year? The last bull I saw like this I was with a noted Moose biologist who said it’s 50/50. And that is the way of life for the Moose. Keep in mind the most fit bull, the one who breeds with the most females might not be either. They have a hard life and I was honored to have spent this time with this icon of the Alaskan wilderness!
Oct 5, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Saturday was a great day on the property. The morning had the Lewis’s Woodpecker and then in the afternoon, these guys wondered in. Now we have had deer on our property in the past, but normally we only know about it when our beagle’s nose tells us. We rarely see them. So to have a 6 & 4pt buck and doe come in and make themselves at home, that floored us. For the first 30-45min we just watched them as they went through and munched on the greenest plants they could find. Why were they there in the first place? There is a semi annual migration of the Mule deer through the area. Normally it’s on the other side of the valley but with the drought, I think they game through the area with all the green plants from folks watering (had a doe and fawn come through on Sunday). After that time, I decided I’d go outside and see if there were any photo opps to be had.
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I grabbed my favorite backyard set up, D4s / 300PF and headed out. I didn’t “sneak up” on them but didn’t rush out either. I stayed in the shadow of the house and slowly, smoothly, sundered up to were they were. They were no more than 20-30′ from the house and with no effort, was able to walk right up to them. With this seemingly big hurdle no hurdle at all, I dealt with the next big one, the background. I’ve put up a number of the images so you can see the progress of the shoot which lasted 90min. We were really shocked with my just standing right there when the doe laid down. At one point, the 4pt buck went over and nozzled her and then made her get up. And another point when a person walked by with a dog, they froze and watched them. In the end, the light got dark and I got bored because, it was way too easy a shoot. But it was fun to sit with the 6pt, talk to him and have him walk up to me for his portrait. That image is above and my favorite. But it was just cool to have this time with these wild critters on their own world.
Oct 5, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
Well our new buddy, the Lewis’s Woodpecker has spent a week with us now, so we just call him Lewis. This immature male is a first for our property and getting to know him and his biology has been great fun. It would seem he is getting use to us as well because we can move about the inside of our house and he know ignores us. That’s great! This weekend, I worked with him more to the point where I could venture outside with the camera and photograph him. No more shooting through the windows and that vastly improved image quality. I have to sneak out the door with the D4s / 800 / Zenili rig but he does permit me to come and and play.
His general pattern is to fly into the Aspen in the front (top photo) and get warm in the sun and watch the activity at the feeders. Then he flies up to the perch next to the feeder (bottom photo) and suns some more and then feeds when he feels safe. At first, the other birds, squirrels and chipmunks kept him from the feeder. Basic immature kid stuff. But by Sunday, we was feeling his oats and he was driving off the other critters so he can eat. He’s a big woodpecker, about the same size as the flicker so he can easily rule the roost. He was fine except when Edgar would come in. Edgar is our “pet” Raven that comes by to talk every so often. Lewis didn’t like Edgar and that was the only time he wasn’t around. It’s been a real hoot to get to know Lewis. I’m on the road the next ten days but Sharon is there to watch, take notes and enjoy Lewis. Can’t wait to get back and work with him some more. When he has his adult plumage, he’ll be a knock out!
Oct 1, 2015 | Wildlife Photography
It started on Tuesday when Sharon called me into the office and pointed out the window at the bird bath. “What’s that bird at the bath?!” She was pointing at a big, dark bird and all we could see was its head, but that was enough. I said, “that’s a Lewis’s Woodpecker!!!” We’ve seen them in the Sierra before, rarely, they prefer the higher altitudes. We’ve seen them on the ridge above our home but never on our property. We watched it drink for a while, then it flew off behind Tree 1 and disappeared. Great bird and thought that would be the end of him as we’ve had a lot of birds come through for a quick sighting not to be seen again. But we were looking!!!
Then today it reappeared! This time, in the front at Tree 3. Being that I’d only gotten a couple of clicks of one decades ago in Montana, I wanted to very much photograph him (it’s a male). So we stayed inside and watched it through the windows. Hard to get any work done this morning as both Sharon and I were watching its every move. Now the Lewis’s Woodpecker is a big bird, the size of a flicker. And it would seem, just as shy. Now we have Red-shafted Flickers, Hairy & White-headed Woodpeckers and Red-breasted Sapsuckers nearly everyday at our feeders so we’re use to their reactions to us. We wanted to learn about the Lewis’s biology and how it would react to us so we just watched. The D4s / 800mm w/TC-1.25e were set up inside and used to watch the Lewis’s through the dual-pane windows. I need it to get comfortable with us moving around and watching it. Slow and easy wins the race! It wanted to come to the seed feeder, same as the flicker you see above (taken on the branch it kept going to). The feeder was so busy with other birds, smaller birds, that these two woodpeckers waited until it was empty to venture in. It spent a god two hours with us, last being seen as the sun set. Fingers crossed it will come back tomorrow. I didn’t want to work anyways!
