Sep 23, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
10-14 June, 2015, we'll be heading back to Glacier NP after a five year absence. It's an amazing place with gorgeous vistas and great critters. All the photos you see here were taking on our last visit and we expect these and much more. Last time we saw a Griz & Bighorn encounter that, even though too far to photograph was a great site to witness. And besides the Columbian Ground Squirrels which are great subjects, we have a great, secret Mtn Goat location to share with folks. We are going right when the park is waking up but the crowds are not yet present. It really is a gorgeous time to be in the Rockies!
We’re based out of the north end of the park so we do drive a bit but gives easy access to some of the best, secret spots Glacier has to offer. This is important not only for the critters, but some amazing landscape photography. The price is $1895 which includes transportation to and from the airport (Missoula, MT) and during the week and all instruction. If interested, give Sharon a call 661.204.1506 M-F, 9-5PST. We will be taking only six folks (two openings) on this great adventure.
Aug 25, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
Here’s a prime example of what I’m talking about not thinking vertical naturally. Gulls are great subjects! Guaranteed that if you watch them for ten minutes they will do something stupid making for a great click. Here, this Laughing Gull is trying to figure out how to get down this flat fish it found on North Beach. Lying on the beach shooting with the D4s / 800mm on the Panning Plate all the elements for a clean cover shot are in place. And had I been smart, I would have slid closer and made that vertical shot. But I didn’t. The question then that comes up is, “Can’t it be cropped into a vertical?” It most certainly can be and that does happen but here’s the problem with that train of thought. Someone has to think of that after seeing the horizontal, they must see in the photo and then think and then act on the thought “That would crop into a great vertical for a cover!” And there’s the problem. When you suggest the cover in a vertical you have much better odds of getting that cover then someone having to see it in your photo. And this whole discussion is just to get you to think beyond f/stop and shutter speed when you go click and to taking your photography to the next level of storyteller!
Aug 18, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
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Photographing Sea Otters requires understanding Peak of Action and waves. Peak of Action is a real simple principle, waiting for a moving object to come to a momentary stop to take a sharp photo. The example I always like to use is a bouncing basketball. There is a point as it travels up that it stops, before traveling back down and there is a point that it stops before it bounces back up. At that moment of rest, you have peak of action. Same holds true with a Sea Otter as they ride the ocean swells. Same does the boat you’re in to photograph the Sea Otter as we were last week in Homer, AK. On a rainy (see drops in the water) dark day, you need to use peak of action to get that sharp image. This means that when you are at peak of action, when you depress the shutter release, the camera fires. This is one aspect of the Nikon 1 V3 (this shot with 30-110 lens) I want to emphasis. When you depress the shutter release, the V3 fires! There is no shutter lag and in fact, when you depress the shutter release you might have 60 images because the camera shoots 60fps. This is just another very impressive aspect of this cool little camera.
Aug 15, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
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So I was getting pretty serious about the V3 being a tool that solves problems for my photography. To prove it even more so to myself, thought I would take it on a stress test. While in Homer, we were able to venture out for a few hours to a favorite location of mine, Gull Island. On a gorgeous rainy day, we went for a cruise and all I took was the V3, 10-30 and 30-110 loaded with a Lexar 68GB MicroSDM (which I’ve not lost yet, a record for me). The V3 can shoot up to 60fps which is why I have the big card. I have it set to just 10fps though.
First, the V3 did just fine in the rain, not even an issue. Having the small, light camera and lens (smaller than your palm) on the open seas was really a treat as it was very simple to hold and shoot. And as you can see, the image quality is truly sweet. The V3 has a “viewfinder” that permits you to see through the lens so shooting is basically like shooting with a DSLR. All the settings are basically the same as on my other DSLR but the zooming from 30 to 110 takes only a second as the throw is so short. At this point in the Black-legged Kittiwake colony, eggs have hatched and some kids have already flown the coop. I prefer to look for patterns in the nest platforms and the rock and for small snipits of family life. The V3 worked very well in capturing those aspects just like the DSLR would have. No, the V3 is not the perfect wildlife rig! I wanted to see if it could take the stress of the environment and produce the same great quality. I’m very impressed!
Jul 30, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
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Around noon, the family woke and made their way down the tree. Mom came down first and when we got eye to eye (she’s perhaps five feet away from me), I recognized her as the cub I’d seen in the same tree in years past. She’s not a cub no mo, she’s now a mom teaching her kids living with man. Now I lucked out when they came down because the thunderstorm had started to form really mellowing out the light. I also shot in the Flat Picture Control which I’m liking more and more in contrasty light (all images taken with D810 / 85f1.8 @1.8). Once mom was down, she “huffed” bringing the kids down. Now kids being kids (spring kids, born during the last winter), didn’t take the direct route but played as they went. Part of that play was to come over and see the funny human with the black box attached to his forehead. The whole thing didn’t last more than eight minutes, but it was fun to see the new family and know we knew that mom back when. Oh, and Newton it turns out does know wildlife :-)
Jul 29, 2014 | Wildlife Photography
“Did they come down,” “Can you see them,” “What are they doing” are just some of the questions I’ve received. Black bears in general have nocturnal habits and that’s true for moms with spring cubs. No doubt they were heading up the hill to their day den when our beagle decided to change their path. So once up the tree being a big, sturdy tree (we call it Tree3), they did what comes naturally during the day. They fell a sleep. Now the world is going by, the bears don’t care about the world and the world doesn’t know the bears are in our yard. Even the beagle when I took her out, could care less now about them. Shooting with the D810 / 80-400 in Flat to open up the shadows, you can’t really see them. Following the red arrows, the upper arrow is the two, spring cubs sleeping on one branch and the mom, the lower arrow kinda drooped over two limbs. And there they are, four hours later.
